The Wild Animal’s Story: Nonhuman Protagonists in Twentieth-Century Canadian Literature through the Lens of Practical Zoocriticism
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and a useful, dead object the stories reflect Tom Regan’s concept of n onhuman animals as the “subject-of-a-life” (243). The zoocentric defamiliarization of the wild animal story also extended to challenging the species stereotypes that legitimize exploitation, as well as depicting the violence of that exploitation from a nonhuman perspective. I proposed that both of these Allmark-Kent 253 techniques perform a valuable function in the relationship between literature and advocacy. By drawing comparisons between the anecdotal cognitivism of Romanes, Seton, and Roberts, I explored the genre’s unique engagement with scientific evidence. Here I encountered a difference between Seton ’s and Roberts’ work. Whilst the former often depicted himself in his stories as the scientist gathering his observations, Roberts used his prefaces to describe his use of research and anecdotes from other observers. I interpreted this disparity as perhaps a reflection of their differing relationships with wild animals. Finally, I demonstrated the exten sive similarities between Seton, Roberts, and Romanes’ perceptions of animal minds. By reading the wild animal story through Romanes ’ theory of (and criteria for) animal intelligence, I provided a new, robust challenge to the genre’s reputation for anthropomorphism and inaccuracy. From this perspective, then, Seton ’s and Roberts’ representations were in accordance with the contemporary animal psychology research. After providing this entirely original re-contextualization and re-evaluation of the wild animal story, I examined two of the articles Burroughs and Roosevelt contributed to the Nature Fakers controversy. By interpreting their criticisms through the context of nineteenth-century scientific specialization, I demonstrated the ways in which the most influential figures of the debate used it as a method of re-establishing and reinforcing the credibility of natural history, and their own positions within it. I also observed that in their mockery of the wild animal story, Burroughs and Roosevelt relied on the negative associations between anthropomorphism, sentimentality, childishness, effeminacy, ignorance, amateurism, and the perceived weakness of the urban middle- classes. Thus, I provided further evidence for the formulation of the genre’s Allmark-Kent 254 reputation as ‘embarrassing.’ I also offered an innovative, new interpretation of the Nature Fakers controversy. In the chapter, “Realistic Representations,” my analyses of Return to the River, Last of the Curlews , and The White Puma revealed the strategies involved in the post- Nature Fakers, ‘realistic’ mode of representation. The authors’ varying efforts to avoid the charge of anthropomorphism enable us to detect the influence of different scientific discourses. The disparity between Last of the Curlews and The White Puma , for instance, reflects the rise and fall of behaviourism. Whereas the similarity between The White Puma and the original wild animal story demonstrates the points of correspondence between nineteenth-century comparative psychology and modern cognitive ethology. For instance, Seton and Lawrence’s texts imitate the blend of instinct and intelligence upon which both theories operate. Likewise, the comparable depictions of particular abilities (such as teaching) validate the wild animal story by undermining previous accusations of ‘nature faking’ and anthropomorphism. The lack of controversy around these twentieth-century texts may owe something to their careful strategies, but I contended that it owes much more to the changing state of animal psychology research. Each author ’s experiences of studying or campaigning on behalf of their chosen species facilitates their textual engagement with animal sciences or animal advocacy. Both Return and Curlews perform ‘investigations,’ for instance; Haig-Brown argues for the validity of home stream theory by using his narrative as an ‘experiment,’ and Bodsworth provides evidence for the rate, and cause, of Eskimo curlew extinction using archive materials. Moreover, he also uses the figure of the last curlew to speculate on the impact of species loss for the remaining individual. How would he migrate, for instance? Each of the Allmark-Kent 255 authors use their work to communicate a specific conservation message, and makes eviden t the direct causes of their species’ endangerment or extinction. As such, they all use a historical perspective to demonstrate the population decline, and the impact on remaining individuals. My close analysis of the three novels in the “Speculative Repre sentations” chapter revealed different strategies for disrupting notions of truth, fact, or accuracy in the text. The multiple narrators in Consider Her Ways , and the multiple re-writings of Mocha/Moby Dick in White as the Waves , both acted as a form of ‘layering’ that prevents any easy assertions of truth. The parodies of scientific investigations in The White Bone and Consider also complicated the issues of fact and accuracy. All three explored the concept of ‘translation,’ which draws attention to the mediation between animal and reader. Although their use of magic aided these techniques by pre-empting accusations of anthropomorphism or fantasy, it also indicated a failure in our speculative representations. Whereas the wild animal story and realistic texts were restricted to fairly simple (often biographical) formats, the use of magic facilitated more complex narrative structures. Yet this use of supernatural abilities to enable cross-species communication or the transmission of complicated information revealed the limitations of our zoocentric imaginations. Although their texts may appear less complex, Bodsworth, Haig-Brown, and Lawrence demonstrated a commitment to their realistic narratives by daring to offer detailed speculations and plausible solutions to the problems raised by sustained, nonhuman representation. For instance, this was particularly evident in the depictions of migrations in Return and Curlews , which are inherently difficult for humans to observe. In future practice, the use or avoidance of Allmark-Kent 256 supernatural abilities may be a way in which we assess a text’s commitment to zoocentric representations. Nonetheless, it is clear that the speculative texts succeeded in creating intensely nonhuman perspectives. These were instrumental in each author ’s defamiliarization of human violence, which relied on imagining the experiences and sensations of nonhuman witnesses. Such distressing representations may elicit greater emotional response, and stimulate increased moral concern, compared to the more nuanced critiques of exploitation and anthropocentrism performed in the realistic texts. Likewise, all three speculative texts offered strong and overt challenges to behaviourism and the reductive connotations of ‘instinct.’ Grove, for instance, openly rejected instinct, whilst Baird’s protagonists applied it to the actions of the human characters instead. Most importantly, however, each author demonstrated a commitment to imagining the upper limits of their sp ecies’ abilities, and speculating on how their specific form of language or culture might operate. Here, I believe, we find an extension of Seton’s occasional attempts to ‘translate’ the communication of his characters— although the strategies these authors use to disrupt realism in their texts reduces the stigma of anthropomorphism. Moreover, if we recall the words of the whale biologist Hal Whitehead, we can perceive both the speculative function of these texts and its importance. These “pictures of elaborate societies, c ultures, and cognitive abilities” are built on “what is known of the biology and social lives of their subject species, ” and for Whitehead at least “ they ring true ” (370, emphasis added). |