Scholars have persuasively argued that the study of animals in literature should include reflection on real animal others. These publications span many time periods and areas of study, including the Hebrew Bible, the Babylonian Talmud, and modernist literature, and all demonstrate the significance of literary analysis to studying animals and religion. Recently, there has been a proliferation of scholarship intersecting the fields of critical animal studies and Jewish studies.
Life of Pi illustrates this species synthesis. What starts out philosophically, culturally, and historically–both within Martel’s fictional frames and in the reality of Western civilization–as a complete species binary between human and animal and a total demarcation between Self and Other resolves itself in a Derridean aporia–both in Life of Pi and in contemporary philosophy–as a species synthesis where the binary no longer belongs and where a theoretically absolute acceptance between the multiple variants of Self and Other is realized. Derrida’s theories on human-animal relations and hospitality provide the critical nexus through which Life of Pi is analyzed. The great thinkers who contribute significantly to the development of human-animal relations are covered herein, leading up to and including Jacques Derrida.
This paper reviews the major philosophical tenets concerning the question of the animal. Part Two of the novel synthesizes contemporary philosophical thought to re-think–literally and figuratively–the species binary and challenges readers to accept a re-oriented view of themselves in relation to the others around them. Part One of the novel traces the history of the Western philosophical tradition concerning human-animal relations.
Rather than attempting a “novel study” of Life of Pi to consider all of its many dimensions and possible critical readings, this thesis focuses on how the novel illustrates the question of the animal, a central inquiry in critical animal studies. Compared to the magnitude of its popularity, Life of Pi has merited little scholarly attention. However, the novel addresses many important questions raised by the field of critical animal studies. Yann Martel’s bestselling 2001 novel, Life of Pi, crosses many literary genres and resists easy classification.
0 kommentar(er)
