Speaking for Animals Animal Autobiographical Writing [Paperback]

For thousands of years, in the myths and folktales of people around the world, animals have spoken in human tongues. Western and non-Western literary and folkloric traditions are filled with both speaking animals, some of whom even narrate or write their own autobiographies. Animals speak, famously, in childrens stories and in cartoons and films, and today, social networking sites and blogs are both sites in which animalsprimarily petswrite about their daily lives and interests. Speaking for Animalsis a compilation of chapters written from a variety of disciplines that attempts to get a handle on this cross cultural and longstanding tradition of animal speaking and writing. It looks at speaking animals in literature, religious texts, poetry, social networking sites, comic books, and in animal welfare materials and even library catalogs, and addresses not just the whys of speaking animals, but the implications, for the animals and for ourselves.

Introduction  Part I: (Mis) Representing Animals: The Limits and Possibilities of Representation  1. What Do We Want from Talking Animals? Reflections on Literary Representations of Animal Voices and Minds  Karla Armbruster  2. Our Animals, Ourselves: Representing Animal Minds in Timothyand The White Bone  Ryan Hediger  3. Investigations of a Dog, by a Dog: Between Anthropocentrism and Canine-Centrism  Naama Harel  Part II: Animals in Human Traditions  4. With Dogs and Lions as Witnesses: Speaking Animals in the History of Christianity  Laura Hobgood-Oster  5. The Speaking Animal: Non-Human Voices in Comics  Lisa Brown  6. Who'll Let the Dogs In? Animals, Authorship, and the Library Catalog  Nancy Babb  Part III: Animal Self, HulC%