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E-book Animals in Dutch Travel Writing, 1800-Present

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Penilaian

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The slowing down of international movement caused by the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic clearly reveals the ethical dilemma travel represents. Research shows that travel has demonstrable positive effects on human beings: It brings new per-spectives and knowledge, and gives a sense of freedom and pleasure that enhances the subjective quality of life and well-being.1 However, the sheer volume of travel today has become a threat, not only to our planet, but also to global welfare, equality, and health. Mass travel causes environmental damage and inevitably leads to the exploitation of people and animals. This insight has not only led to a reconsideration of our responsibility for dealing with other living beings, but has also given rise to a Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, developed by the UN World Tourism Organization.2For as long as humans have been travelling, they have encountered others: new people, new cultures, and also new animals. These animals encompass the danger-ous, the exotic, the unfamiliar, the domesticated, the tasty or, indeed, the helpful. In his highly influential essay ‘Why Look at Animals?’ (1977) – a text that is often seen as foundational to the field of animal studies3 – the English novelist and art critic John Berger described the evolution of the relationship between human and non-human animals. Animals have, since the dawn of time, populated our world, our lives, and our fantasies – the oldest human rock paintings depict them. To Berger’s regret, people seemed to have forgotten how to truly look at them. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, under the influence of the industrial revolution and the ever-in-creasing capitalism, animals became alienated and marginalised, both physically and culturally, Berger argues. As caged attractions or domesticated pets that serve human needs, they have become pale remnants of the beings they once were.4A lot has changed since 1977, albeit not necessarily for the better. The current state of the planet urges us to rethink our relationship with the environment in general and animals in particular. In his essay, Berger examines the alienation of animals, also raising interesting questions about the role of writing about animals and animal descriptions. People, Berger argues, have come to see them more as symbols than as actual, real living beings. When people think they know animals, they in fact interpret them as it suits them: They project meanings onto the animals, who then become signs in a process of self-reflection. Berger gives the example of a woman, Barbara Carter, who won a ‘grant a wish’ charity contest in 1976. She wanted to kiss and cuddle a lion. When she tried to kiss Suki, a lioness in a nearby Safari Park that was supposed to be ‘perfectly safe’, she ended up in hospital with severe injuries.5Whilst this type of misconception, a form of anthropomorphism – attributing human characteristics to non-human things and events – can easily be criticised, anthropomorphism itself has a long tradition in many cultures. Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie argues that our survival depends on our ability to interpret an ambiguous world.6 Visualising the world as humanlike may be a smart survival strategy: it may help to categorize observations and experiences, and organise our predictions based on them. Moreover, we cannot simply transcend anthro-pomorphism, because we cannot separate our experience of reality from being human. Rather, the question here is whether some form of anthropomorphism could maintain the distinction between humans and animals. To a certain extent, human-animal relationships will always remain unequal, since animals do not possess the ability to express themselves in language – to ‘write back’ and offer a different perspective on themselves to that put forward by humans. In other words, they lack representational capacity.The questions Berger asked about the effects of the representation of animals are just as relevant today: What does it mean to write about animals? To what extent can representations of animals do justice to their actual, living, physical reality?

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

902.492 ALT a

Penerbit

Leiden : Leiden University Press., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

297 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9789087284022

Klasifikasi

902.492

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Miscellany of History in Netherlands

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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