The Question of the Animal

After reading the selection from Derrida's "The Animal that Therefore I am" distributed in class, please post a question and your attempt at an answer here.

As I mentioned in class, this is an intentionally short selection, so if you have time, you may want to read it more than once. Derrida would have certainly appreciated it if you were to read it again and again.

Until Wednesday.

Enter Ethics

 For "reading week," please read pages 15-91 in JM Coetzee's The Lives of Animals; this includes Coetzee's original "lecture" as well as responses by the literary critic Marjorie Garber and the philosopher Peter Singer.  In addition, please read the Singer and Regan handouts distributed last week.  The latter selections are available via .pdf on the UASonline website if you've misplaced your copies.  The book is readily available via online book sellers or, potentially, via loan from your peers.  Per the usual routine, post your questions and meditations in the comment section below.  

Happy reading,

kevin m

Watching and Working: How to forge an appropriate relationship with the non-human

Per the instructions in class, we'll return to the Berger and Malamud readings in our discussion next week. So if you had a lousy copy, you were too busy, or you just plain flaked out: go back and read those two provocative (and polemic) essays. Fresh copies are available via .pdf on the UAS Online course website or by e-mail from Kevin M, should you need them. We'll likely return to Grizzly Man a bit in discussion, so feel free to continue that discussion here; we'd prefer, though, that you situate it in relation to the arguments made in the readings.

Additionally, moving ahead, we'll spend some time working through two selections from Vicki Hearne's famous 1986 book Adam's Task: Calling Animals by Name. As always, please post your questions, concerns, and musings here.