16457 Proseminar / Hauptseminar der Samuel Fischer-Gastprofessur

Yann Martel

Meeting the Other: the Animal in Western Literature

The animal is remarkably absent in Western literature. In the New Testament we have a donkey who acts as a brief taxi for the Messiah and a cock whose crowing so upsets Simon Peter. Dante’s Comedy is remarkably empty of animal forms, as are the works of Shakespeare and Molière. We have the Greek myths and the Fables of La Fontaine, and the explosion of animals in children’s literature in the last few centuries - plenty of animals there - but what animals are these?

The fact is that Greek swans don’t normally make love to women and crows aren’t normally subject to flattery by foxes and African elephants don’t normally go about like Babar bourgeois. Life is remarkably rare in the universe, yet with one catchall word - ’animal’ - we commonly designate all forms of life that are not human. But what do we mean by ’animal’? What do we see when we look at an animal? What is an animal?

In this seminar we will explore together - like hunters in a jungle - how the Western tradition has met the animal other. We will look at works of literature old and new, we will touch upon ethology and the history of zoos. Most importantly, we will look at ourselves.