Animals in Literary Education

This book examines the complicated place of animals in literary analysis and education and shows how an ethically engaged approach to animals’ representation could be pursued to challenge anthropocentrism and cultivate multispecies empathy. Other species are represented in the literary education canon, including farmed animals. Yet the animals are typically anthropomorphized to guide students toward humanist readings and away from consideration of animals’ experiences or subjectivities. This reproduces the idea that animals are mere objects meant to be exploited for human purposes, even metaphorical and educational ones. John Drew develops the term “anthropo-allegory” to capture and critique the process through which students are taught to read animal literary representations exclusively as symbolic analogues for humans and human themes. The concept serves as an analytical lens for critically interrogating significant texts taught across educational levels and exposing the deeply engrained educational anthropocentrism that silences animal issues, even when animals are represented. Crucially, Drew identifies texts and pedagogical strategies that can help cultivate a literary educational animal ethic that simultaneously encourages analytical rigour and multispecies concern.

“Through discussion of literary classics like Charlotte’s Web this book advocates for new ways of teaching texts to reorient educational practices. The focus on multispecies empathy ‘in a sea of educational anthropocentrism’ makes the book especially timely and likely to be a reference for future research for a long time to come.” (Pauliina Rautio, Professor of Biodiversity Education, University of Oulu, Finland)

“Focusing on several of the most taught animal stories, Animals in Literary Education pursues novel answers to a burning question: how to frame nonhuman animals as legitimate subjects in literary education? Providing practical guidance to scholars and educators at all levels, the book models applied animal ethics in educational studies.” (Susan McHugh, Professor of English, University of New England, Maine, US)

John Drew has a PhD from Western University and is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.