A01=Robert McKay
animal rights
animal studies
Author_Robert McKay
Category=DSBH
Category=DSBJ
Category=DSK
Category=DSM
Contemporary literature
critical theory
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
gender
race
sexuality
species politics
Product details
- ISBN 9781399551854
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This book traces a radical politics of species across the work of four significant Anglophone authors of the late twentieth century: Brigid Brophy, Alice Walker, J.M. Coetzee and David Foster Wallace. Presenting an exciting and original perspective, Robert McKay argues that these literary figures tell anthropofugal stories, in which a tendency towards animals coincides with a desire to flee from humanity. Their writing disavows allegiance to humanity’s various guises and ideals, dismissing human distinctiveness and disturbing human privilege to reimagine life with so-called animals. While deeply grounded in the practice of literary close reading, Anthropofugal Fictions is also a work of philosophy and theory that shows how doubts about species identity lie at the heart of live debates about gender, sexuality, race and ethics. It is a challenging and provocative account of what it means not to be human, and of living amongst animals without species difference as a legitimation of one’s actions.
Robert McKay is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Sheffield, where he co-directs the Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre. He has published widely on the politics of species in contemporary literature and film and co-edited several volumes, including Animal Satire (2023) and The Palgrave Handbook of Animals and Literature (2021). He is the co-editor, with Susan McHugh and John Miller, of the book series Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature.
