Writing on Sheep: Ecology, the Animal Turn and Sheep in Poetry

Sheep are often marginalized in literary criticism and pastoral literature, but this book offers an animal studies approach that highlights their agency and the moral dilemma between animal welfare and species extinction. It rereads works from the pastoral and georgic canon to imagine a nature-culture within which to make kin across the species boundary.

Format: Hardback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 25 May 2021
Publisher: Manchester University Press

Sheep have been marginalized in literary criticism and in discussions of pastoral literature. This book brings an animal studies approach to poetry about sheep, which allows for the agency of these sentient beings that have been associated with humans for over ten thousand years. This approach highlights the distinction between wild and domesticated species and the moral dilemma between the goals of animal welfare and those of saving species from extinction. The discussion of mostly contemporary poetry follows a new reading of works from the pastoral and georgic canon. Allowing for the sentience and sociality of sheep makes it easier to imagine a nature-culture within which to make kin across the species boundary.

Reading poetry about sheep has the power to make new meanings as we try to adapt to an increasingly complex and problematic environment. Sheep have been marginalized in literary criticism and in discussions of pastoral literature. This book brings an animal studies approach to poetry about sheep, which allows for the agency of these sentient beings that have been associated with humans for over ten thousand years. This approach highlights the distinction between wild and domesticated species and the moral dilemma between the goals of animal welfare and those of saving species from extinction. The discussion of mostly contemporary poetry follows a new reading of works from the pastoral and georgic canon. Allowing for the sentience and sociality of sheep makes it easier to imagine a nature-culture within which to make kin across the species boundary.

Reading poetry about sheep has the power to make new meanings as we try to adapt to an increasingly complex and problematic environment. Sheep have been marginalized in literary criticism and in discussions of pastoral literature. This book brings an animal studies approach to poetry about sheep, which allows for the agency of these sentient beings that have been associated with humans for over ten thousand years. This approach highlights the distinction between wild and domesticated species and the moral dilemma between the goals of animal welfare and those of saving species from extinction. The discussion of mostly contemporary poetry follows a new reading of works from the pastoral and georgic canon. Allowing for the sentience and sociality of sheep makes it easier to imagine a nature-culture within which to make kin across the species boundary.

Weight: 552g
Dimension: 163 x 242 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526156570