Thinking Animals

Kari Weil is University Professor of Letters at Wesleyan University. She has published widely on feminist theory; literary representations of gender (especially in France); the riding, breeding, and eating of horses in nineteenth-century France; and, more recently, on theories and representations of animal otherness and human-animal relations. Her course, "Animal Subjects," which she first taught at the California College of the Arts, won "Best Course Award" from the United States Humane Society.

Weil maps the theoretical history of animal studies while also setting a course for future studies. She makes challenging theoretical arguments accessible and inviting. The framework of ethics also offers a framework for abstract discussion that should include even those without deep theoretical knowledge into the conversation. -- Teresa Mangum, director, Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa From J.M. Coetzee and Bill Viola to Virginia Woolf and Sam Taylor-Wood, Kari Weil plumbs our thick entanglements with non-human animals as companions, as abjected others, as subjects of grief and mourning-those dense contact zones in which art and literature may well 'think' non-human animals better, or at least more patiently, than theory and philosophy. Anyone interested in love, life, and death across species will want to read this book. -- Cary Wolfe, author of Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and the Posthumanist Theory Kari Weil's book is a deeply felt and keenly thought engagement with key philosophical questions animating the exploding scholarly world of 'animal studies.' In this graciously written and eminently approachable text, Weil has created a book that will stimulate seasoned scholars and beginning students alike to take up the twenty-first century challenge of taking animals seriously across all realms of academia. This book belongs on bookshelves, and syllabi for courses in philosophy, cultural studies, anthropology, literature, ecology, animal science, and biology. It takes a very good scholar indeed to make such 'challenging issues underpinning our moral, aesthetic, and philosophical relations with animals seem so compelling and clear without in the least simplifying them. Highly recommended. -- Jane Desmond, author of Staging Tourism: Bodies on Display from Waikiki to Sea World Providing an accessible overview and casting new eyes on familiar literature, Weil makes a significant contribution to animal studies and critical theory... Recommended. Choice engaging -- Chris Wilbert Radical Philosophy

• Preface: Thinking Animals Acknowledgments Part I: Why Animal Studies Now? 1. A Report on the Animal Turn 2. Seeing Animals Part II: Pet Tales 3. Is a Pet an Animal? Domestication and Animal Agency 4. Gendered Subjects/Abject Objects: Man(n)'s Best Friend 5. Dog Love/W(o)olf Love Part III: Grieving Animals 6. A Proper Death 7. Thinking and Unthinking Animal Death: Temple Grandin and J. M. Coetzee Part IV: Ethical Betises 8. Animal Liberation or Shameless Freedom "And Toto Too": Animal Studies, Posthumanism, and Oz Notes Index