Readings Between Animal Studies and the Environmental Humanities : Aesthetics, Ethics and Sustainable Transition

The relationship between animal studies and the environmental humanities is both intimate and tense. It makes little sense to examine the representation of environments without thinking about the animals that shape them, or, conversely, to think about animals without exploring the ecologies they live in. Yet, animal studies and the environmental humanities often appear to have divergent ethical, political and intellectual emphases.

This book examines the relationship between animal studies and the environmental humanities through three interlinked topics – meat, oil and conservation – each of which has given rise to an emerging sub-field of academic enquiry: vegan studies, the energy humanities, and extinction studies. Exploring these themes and perspectives through readings of literary texts from the nineteenth century to the present, the book argues that the contradictions and cross-fertilisations between ecological and animal critical perspectives provide a compelling perspective on the failure of mainstream discourses of sustainability to address our current global emergency.