A Human-Animal Relational Aesthetic: Towards a Zoophilic Representation of Animals in Art [Book Review]

Biosemiotics 6 (2):231-243 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The systematic examination of the visual depiction of nonhuman animals by humans, and the representation of nonhuman animal imagery is an opportunity to observe varying degrees of anthropocentrism in the manner in which the nonhuman animal is represented. The investigation we present ventures beyond the traditional scope of post-modern human alterity and suggests that an Otherness status should be extended to encompass both the human animal and the nonhuman animal. An important motivation for seriously considering nonhuman animal experience is the biological similarities shared by human animals and nonhuman animals. Many perspectives toward the nonhuman animal have ignored such similarities, and this in turn results in the infliction of much trauma and injustice on nonhuman animals. We argue that the visual representation of nonhuman animals has the potential, to a substantial degree, to affect the general human understanding of and interactions with all nonhuman animals, and with positive, neutral, and negative implications for all involved. In other words, it really matters how we represent animals

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 97,154

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-07-19

Downloads
75 (#230,004)

6 months
17 (#248,395)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

When Species Meet.Donna Jeanne Haraway - 2007 - Univ of Minnesota Press.
Speciesism and moral status.Peter Singer - 2009 - Metaphilosophy 40 (3-4):567-581.
The Postmodern Animal.Steve Baker - 2001 - Environmental Values 10 (3):417-418.
Postmodern Animal.Steve Baker - 2000 - Reaktion Books.

View all 12 references / Add more references