FYS 080 Creature: Animals in Contemporary Culture

Why are animals and "animality" becoming more frequent themes in recent literature, performance, and visual art? How is this trend to be understood in relation to global climate change, habitat loss, extinction, ecological ethics, and "pet" economies in contemporary culture? This course begins with a broad introduction to the ways animals have been theorized within our own (Western) intellectual tradition, engages major critical questions within animal philosophy in recent decades, and then applies these rubrics to contemporary texts, performances, and artworks that ask us to think about animals in provocative ways.

Instructor

Rohman