“Under the Skin” of Literary Animals: the Animal Perspective in Leo N. Tolstoy’s Short Story Kholstomer Cover Image

„ПОД КОЖАТА“ НА ЖИВОТНИТЕ ВО КНИЖЕВНОСТА: ЖИВОТИНСКАТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВА ВО РАСКАЗОТ ПЛАТНОМЕР НА ЛАВ Н. ТОЛСТОЈ
“Under the Skin” of Literary Animals: the Animal Perspective in Leo N. Tolstoy’s Short Story Kholstomer

Author(s): Filip Trajkovski
Subject(s): Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Theory of Literature
Published by: Институт за македонска литература
Keywords: literature; animals; animal studies; literary animal studies; posthumanism; otherness

Summary/Abstract: In the last three decades, as a part of the wider discourse of posthumanism and under the common umbrella of the so-called animal studies, begins to develop a new interpretative literary criticism labeled as literary animal studies. This criticism, both ethical and political, makes (re)evaluation of the literature from the standpoint of how animals are represented and treated therein. Literary animal studies dispute the figurative use of animals, often reduced to tropes in service of the anthropocentric perspective, while searching for works of literature where animals are perceived in a way that respects their subjective character and independent existence. At the same time, the textual politics of animal representation in literature reveals the question of animals as otherness and the appropriate discussion of the human-animal divide, whereby new understanding and possible exit from the solipsism of the modern human subject is provided, all by decentering the anthropocentric humanism and rethinking of its ontological and epistemological limitations. In the abovementioned sense, starting from the animal perspective applied in it, this article seeks to (re)interpret Leo N. Tolstoy’s short story Kholstomer as an exemplary work in terms of literary animal studies.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 19
  • Page Range: 25-38
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Macedonian