Narratology beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life

417 Pages·2018·21.51 MB·English

by  David Herman

n Narratology beyond the Human

Narratology beyond
the Human
Storytelling and Animal Life
David Herman
3
3
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For Susan, lover of moth, moorhen, and manatee, of dogwood,
cactus flower, and live oak, of coastal path, desert riverbed,
and Plaza Andalusia

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CONTENTS
Preface  ix
Introduction  1
PART I n  Storytelling and Selfhood beyond the Human 
1 Self- Narratives and Nonhuman Selves  25
2 Boundary Conditions: Identification and Transformation
across Species Lines  51
3 Entangled Selves, Transhuman Families  87
PART II n  Narrative Engagements with
More- Than- Human Worlds 
4 Multispecies Storyworlds in Graphic Narratives  117
5 Life Narratives beyond the Human  157
6 Animal Minds across Discourse Domains  202
7 Explanation and Understanding in Animal Narratives  233
Coda: Toward a Bionarratology; or, Storytelling at Species Scale  249
Notes  295
Glossary  335
Bibliography  341
Index  375
vii

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PREFACE
This book aims to develop a cross- disciplinary approach to post- Darwinian narra-
tives concerned with animals and human- animal relationships, and in the process
open new lines of communication between the two domains of research at whose
intersection it is situated.1 One domain is narratology, the study of the structures,
meanings, and uses of narratives of all sorts. The other domain is research on cultural
understandings of animals that postdate Darwin’s groundbreaking work in evolu-
tionary biology, and in particular his hypothesis that humans are subject to the same
evolutionary processes that bear on other forms of creatural life. Research in this
second area examines how attitudes toward other animals and the broader environ-
ment that we share with them take shape in— and in turn put their stamp on— a
variety of cultural institutions, practices, and artifacts. What has been largely absent
from such sociocultural approaches to creatural life, and what thus sets my study
apart from previous work in the field, is an emphasis on the distinctive structures
and functions of narratively organized discourse centering on animals and human-
animal relationships. Analysis of these structures and functions can, I argue, clarify
the role played by fictional as well as nonfictional narratives in consolidating, chal-
lenging, or reconfiguring more or less dominant understandings of the nonhuman
world. At the same time, I explore how a fuller, more sustained consideration of
animal narratives sheds new light on the nature of storytelling itself.
The chapters that follow thus suggest how the study of fictional as well as non-
fictional narratives that include but extend beyond the realm of the human can pro-
mote dialogue and exchange among the arts, sciences, and humanities. Conversely,
approaching these narratives from a cross- disciplinary perspective can foster new
ways of imagining and responding to trans- species entanglements in the larger bio-
sphere. Because so many encounters with animals are mediated through narratively
organized discourse, there is pressing need for a comprehensive model of what sto-
rytelling practices reveal about (human attitudes toward) the nonhuman world and
its inhabitants. A model that integrates structural and contextual analysis, combin-
ing the technical methods of narratology with research on cultural understandings
of animals and human- animal interactions, can achieve such comprehensiveness,
allowing for a step change in this area of inquiry.
Indeed, a guiding assumption of the book is that it is impossible to come fully to
terms with the narratives under study without engaging in the new ways of thinking
that emerge from and also contribute to cross- or rather transdisciplinary dialogue
of this sort.2 For that matter the root question “What is an animal?” cannot be
answered in the absence of sustained collaboration across different areas of inquiry.
The very notion animal carries mythopoetic, biological- ecological, sociohistorical,
and legal- political resonances that are multiplied when trans- species relationships
ix