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ENGL 202 Introduction to Literary Study: Creaturely Lives 02/011/2013

ENGL 202 Introduction to Literary Study: Creaturely Lives 02/011/2013 . The Lives of Animals Feedback on last class writing prompt. Prompt: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows by writing a short paragraph (3-4 sentences).

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ENGL 202 Introduction to Literary Study: Creaturely Lives 02/011/2013

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  1. ENGL 202 Introduction to Literary Study: Creaturely Lives 02/011/2013

  2. The Lives of AnimalsFeedback on last class writing prompt • Prompt: Read the following passage and answer the question that follows by writing a short paragraph (3-4 sentences). • John and Elizabeth are arguing here about vegetarianism. Why do you think that Coetzee has made this debate fictional? Why didn’t he just write a political pamphlet about vegetarianism?

  3. [John Bernard] “Do you really believe, Mother, that poetry classes are going to close down the slaughterhouses?” [Elizabeth Costello] “No.” “Then why do it? You said you were tired of clever talk about animals, proving by syllogism that they do or do not have souls. But isn’t poetry just another kind of clever talk: admiring the muscles of the big cats in verse? Wasn’t your point about talk that it changes nothing? It seems to me the level of behavior you want to change is too elementary, too elemental, to be reached by talk. Carnivorousness expresses something truly deep about human beings, just as it does about jaguars. You wouldn’t want to put a jaguar on a soybean diet.” “Because he would die. Human beings don’t die on a vegetarian diet.” “No, they don’t. But they don’t want a vegetarian diet. They like eating meat.” (p. 58)

  4. Everyone got the main point: that fictionalizing the debate makes it more interesting/engaging/immediate/”realistic”/alive than a polemical pamphlet would be. It thus appeals to more readers than a dry, factual pamphlet would. The fictional form makes for openness of interpretation, as opposed to dogma or preaching. Elizabeth Costello is dogmatic, but The Lives of Animals is not. However, one drawback is that you never know what Coetzee’s point of view is.

  5. Robert Shores as Oedipus (front) and Janye Anderson as Jocasta (back) • Vegetarianism is presented as a debate; not one-sided, as a pamphlet would be. Nevertheless, as one or two of you noted, the book as a whole (and this passage in particular) is not trying to promote vegetarianism. But the view of the topic it presents is not necessarily balanced. • Costello’s compassion for animals doesn’t necessarily make her an attractive figure. But she can admit the truth of John’s critique: poetry won’t sway people. • The mother –son relationship in western culture and popular culture is strongly invested with emotion and often mythologized (Oedipus, Achilles, Hamlet and Gertrude, Freud’s Oedipus complex). Note John’s use of understated humor. Always provide examples from the passage to back up your points.

  6. J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals “Reflections” 4 scholars respond to Coetzee’s lectures (pp. 73-120 of The Lives of Animals) Main point: to what discipline does Coetzee’s fictionalized debate belong? Different disciplines offer very different readings of the issues they consider to be at stake in The Lives of Animals.

  7. 1. Marjorie GarberLiterary critic and cultural theorist

  8. Garber’s questions: What does the form have to do with the content? What does the form … displace, repress, or disavow? What are the relationships between the sexes, and between family members? What does the emphasis on animals tell us about people? (74)

  9. What does the form have to do with the content? “a strategy of control” (76) What does the form … displace, repress, or disavow? The form “insulates the warring ideas … against claims of authorship and authority.” (79) What are the relationships between the sexes, and between family members? What does the emphasis on animals tell us about people? Is the book really about “the value of literature”? (84)

  10. 2. Peter SingerMoral philosopher

  11. Also uses a fictional debate, between self and daughter Wouldn’t defend Costello’s “radical egalitarianism” (86) “We can’t take our feelings as moral data, immune from rational criticism.” (89) “are they Coetzee’s arguments? … They are Costello’s arguments.” (91)

  12. 3. Wendy DonigerProfessor of the history of religions

  13. Religious sacrifice of animals to gods assuages guilt (94) “Vegetarianism and compassion for animals are not the same thing at all.” (96) You don’t have to kill to eat meat. Compassion for animals might be good for us. Hindu religions stress the belief that “we are like animals” (99) “No one can prove that someone else does not know how animals feel.” We must learn to speak animal language. (105)

  14. 4. Barbara SmutsPrimatologist

  15. “none of the characters [in LofA] ever mentions a personal encounter with an animal.” (107) “the deepest lessons came when I found myself sharing the being of a baboon because other baboons were treating me as one.” (110) Baboons are individuals “my dog Safi … has given me the opportunity to experience a joyful intersubjectivity that transcends species boundaries.” (114) “Safi and I are equals … but not the same.” (117) “personhood connotes a way of being in relation to others” (118) – thus we can be friends with animals

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