Canis Modernis: Human/Dog Coevolution in Modernist Literature

In modernist literature, dogs symbolize the modern condition, facing adaptation challenges like humans. This book explores the human-dog relationship in works by Virginia Woolf, Jack London, Albert Payson Terhune, J. R. Ackerley, and Samuel Beckett, highlighting their coevolutionary and coadapting role. Dogs destabilize the human, challenging human autonomy and humanistic forms. It is an accessible and compelling study for students and scholars of modernist literature and animal studies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 06 December 2022
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Modernist literature has often been criticized for its portrayal of dogs, with many works featuring stray dogs wandering the streets of Dublin in James Joyce's Ulysses and the highbred canine subject of Virginia Woolf's Flush. However, in this book, Karalyn Kendall-Morwick argues that dogs should not be seen as mere stand-ins for humans but rather as coevolutionary and coadapting partners of humans. Drawing from the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and the scientific, literary, and philosophical work of Donna Haraway, Temple Grandin, and Carrie Rohman, Kendall-Morwick makes a compelling case for the dog as a vital participant in the human story.

Through a close examination of modernist works by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Jack London, Albert Payson Terhune, J. R. Ackerley, and Samuel Beckett, Kendall-Morwick demonstrates how dogs destabilize the human subject, challenging the autonomous, self-transparent subject of Western humanism. Instead, she shows how dogs are contingent, shaped by their material interactions with other species. By revealing how modernist representations of dogs ultimately mongrelize the human, this book offers a fresh perspective on dogs' status as both instigators of the crisis of the modern subject and as partners uniquely positioned to help humans adapt to the turbulent forces of modernization.

Kendall-Morwick's writing is accessible and engaging, making this study an invaluable resource for students and scholars of modernist literature and animal studies. It challenges the traditional boundaries between humans and animals, offering a new understanding of the complex and multifaceted relationship between these two species. This book will undoubtedly spark further debate and discussion on the role.

Weight: 346g
Dimension: 228 x 153 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271088037