Figuring Animals : Essays on Animal Images in Art, Literature, Philosophy and Popular Culture

This is a collection of fifteen essays which expose weaknesses in western epistemological frames of reference that for centuries have limited our views, and, thus, our experiences of animal being, including our own. The volume contributes to current discussions of new ways of seeing the other inhabitants of this world and more effective ways of sharing the world with them. The contributors draw on and complement the growing field of ecocriticism, but because the contributors draw on an array of disciplinary and cultural perspectives, it will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from literary scholars, philosophers, art historians, anthropologists, and cultural historians (including graduate and undergraduate students in all these disciplines), to laypersons interested in nature writing and environmental issues.