Decolonial Animal Ethics in Linda Hogan’s Poetry and Prose
Decolonial Animal Ethics in Linda Hogan’s Poetry and Prose is a plea for an urgent redefinition of human-animal relations on the basis of a nonanthropocentric animal ethic embraced by premodern Indigenous communities but depreciated by coloniality. Without decolonial revisions of animal subjectivity and personhood, the animal genocide can never truly stop. It is also a close reading of Linda Hogan’s poetry and prose in search of the coordinates of a decolonized animal ethic which would foster interspecies becoming. Having defined the recurring tropes, motifs, and attitudes that underpin Hogan’s treatment of nonhuman animals, the book moves on to trace the way she depicts the human-animal bond, especially in the face of the destructive anthropogenic impact. The major questions guiding the analysis of Hogan’s oevre are as follows: who are the animals we share our earthly lives with; what can they teach us about ourselves; how can animals guide us toward more sustainable futures; and what are the conditions of possibility of an interspecies, human-animal thriving. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Indigenous Studies, Decolonial Studies, Animal Studies, Ecocriticism, Anthropocene Studies, as well as readers of Linda Hogan’s literary works.
Małgorzata Poks is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Studies, Faculty of Humanities, at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She received her PhD in Literary Studies from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. She is the author of Thomas Merton and Latin America: A Consonance of Voices (Winner of the International Thomas Merton Award) and Kobieta, która czuwa nad światem (2021), a translation of Linda Hogan’s A Woman Who Watches Over the World.