This essay takes as its starting point the challenge posed by Henry D. Thoreau’s 1861 essay “Walk... more This essay takes as its starting point the challenge posed by Henry D. Thoreau’s 1861 essay “Walking,” which suggests that even the shortest walk around the neighborhood should be approached as a quest for wildness, a quest that must be taken up in such a “spirit of undying adventure” that the walker must be prepared “never to return” (244). The author draws on her personal experiences to explore the ways that such a Thoreavian walk might take shape in the suburban and urban environments where most people live in the contemporary United States. She proposes that bringing a dog as a companion may enhance the wildness quotient of a walk, despite the ways that dogs can work against many of Thoreau’s values by functioning as distractions and added responsibilities. She draws on a literary tradition that treats dogs as guides to wildness and the more-than-human world in order to argue that, if we pay proper attention, dogs’ sensory capabilities in particular can point us towards the invisible wild dimensions of the more-than-human world.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Jan 1, 1996
The developing field of ecofeminism has recently produced an im-jDressive array of anthologies, s... more The developing field of ecofeminism has recently produced an im-jDressive array of anthologies, special issues ofjournals, and articles devoted to exploring and explaining the field's history and poten-tial. 1 The differing and sometimes contradictory approaches repre- ...
Animal acts: configuring the human in western …, Jan 1, 1997
11 " Surely, God, These Are My Kin" The Dynamics of Identity and Advocacy in th... more 11 " Surely, God, These Are My Kin" The Dynamics of Identity and Advocacy in the Life and Works of Dian Fossey Karla Armbruster The dividing line between nations may well be invisible; but it is no less reaL How does one cross that line to travel in the nation of animals? Having ...
This essay takes as its starting point the challenge posed by Henry D. Thoreau’s 1861 essay “Walk... more This essay takes as its starting point the challenge posed by Henry D. Thoreau’s 1861 essay “Walking,” which suggests that even the shortest walk around the neighborhood should be approached as a quest for wildness, a quest that must be taken up in such a “spirit of undying adventure” that the walker must be prepared “never to return” (244). The author draws on her personal experiences to explore the ways that such a Thoreavian walk might take shape in the suburban and urban environments where most people live in the contemporary United States. She proposes that bringing a dog as a companion may enhance the wildness quotient of a walk, despite the ways that dogs can work against many of Thoreau’s values by functioning as distractions and added responsibilities. She draws on a literary tradition that treats dogs as guides to wildness and the more-than-human world in order to argue that, if we pay proper attention, dogs’ sensory capabilities in particular can point us towards the invisible wild dimensions of the more-than-human world.
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Jan 1, 1996
The developing field of ecofeminism has recently produced an im-jDressive array of anthologies, s... more The developing field of ecofeminism has recently produced an im-jDressive array of anthologies, special issues ofjournals, and articles devoted to exploring and explaining the field's history and poten-tial. 1 The differing and sometimes contradictory approaches repre- ...
Animal acts: configuring the human in western …, Jan 1, 1997
11 " Surely, God, These Are My Kin" The Dynamics of Identity and Advocacy in th... more 11 " Surely, God, These Are My Kin" The Dynamics of Identity and Advocacy in the Life and Works of Dian Fossey Karla Armbruster The dividing line between nations may well be invisible; but it is no less reaL How does one cross that line to travel in the nation of animals? Having ...
In this time of climate change anxiety, it’s hard to deny the profound appeal of the ark — a huma... more In this time of climate change anxiety, it’s hard to deny the profound appeal of the ark — a human-created refuge that can carry whatever is most precious through hard times and into the safety of some barely-imagined future. Practical conservation efforts in this mode include seed banks and conservation centers for amphibians endangered by habitat loss and the chytrid fungus. But the notion of the ark plays a powerful psychological role as well, potentially protecting us from grappling with the specter of unprecedented loss. In this personal essay, the author explores the allure of the ark on not just a cultural but also a personal level, discussing her life-long fondness for the story of Noah; for her, this story reflects a deep love for the world and the creatures who live on it as well as a sense of responsibility for their welfare and — most critically — power to keep them safe. She traces the ways her own life has followed the shape of Noah’s voyage, including the significant number of rescued dogs and cats she has fostered and adopted over the years. By juxtaposing her stories with the current threats to other species — and our own — by climate change, she argues that there is a fundamental flaw in the logic of the ark: A beloved cat, killed unexpectedly by an equally beloved dog, dramatically gave the lie to the assumption that humans can safeguard other species or that there can be a safe space and drove home the ubiquity of risk, even within our own bodies. Only once “our dreams of safety” disappear, she argues, can we genuinely learn how to exist with other species as our world radically transforms.
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