The postcolonial animal : African literature and posthuman ethics / Evan Maina Mwngi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mwangi, Evan, author.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), issuing body.

Series:

African perspectives (University of Michigan. Press)

African perspectives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animal rights--Africa.

Animal rights.

Animal welfare--Africa.

Animal welfare.

Postcolonialism--Africa.

Postcolonialism.

Africa.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (255 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, [2019]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

"In this book, Evan Maina Mwangi assembles a wide range of contemporary texts to explore the interface of postcolonial writing, posthuman theory, and human-animal studies in Africanist contexts. Topics include the engagement with animals in indigenous ethics; representations of animals in modern texts based on African folklore; treatments of insects and small animals in African art; interspecies sex; and the deployment of animals as narrators and narrative agents. The book also considers animals as cultural signifiers of class, race, gender, and sexuality in works from Africa and its black diaspora. The book demonstrates that the human is not separated from other agencies in the universe, making it a central feature of the way African writers represent animals in literary texts. Writers discussed include such well-known artists and intellectuals such as Nuruddin Farah, Ngũgĩwa Thiong'o, J.M. Coetzee, Charles Mungoshi, Jan Carew, and Zakes Mda. Emergent or less-discussed writers like Yuda Komora, Henry ole Kulet, Grace Ogot, Patrice Nganang, and Rebecca Nandwa are also given consideration. Repurposing Rosi Braidotti and other theorists of posthumanism, Mwangi advocates an egalitarian ethics in its unconditional acceptance of nonhuman others for their authenticity in being what they are."

Contents:

Chapter 1 Being Animals, Becoming-Africa p. 1

Chapter 2 Re-Animating Precolonial Ecological Practices: The Case of Ubuntu p. 27

Chapter 3 Not Yet Happily Ever After: Orature and Animals p. 53

Chapter 4 Winds of Change and the God of Small Animals p. 100

Chapter 5 Interspecies Sexual Intimacies p. 133.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from publisher.

ISBN:

9780472125708

0472125702

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.