CHAPTER SIX SPECULATIVE REPRESENTATIONS: FREDERICK PHILIP GROVE’S CONSIDER HER WAYS , BARBARA GOWDY’S THE WHITE BONE , AND ALISON BAIRD’S WHITE AS THE WAVES Introduction The close relationship between the scientific study of animal cognition
and the literary representation of animal protagonists, discussed in the previous
chapter, develops into a more complex (and perhaps less hierarchical)
interaction in these speculative texts. Although each author produces a
scientifically-informed depiction of nonhuman experience, they challenge what
is known of their specific species through
speculative acts of the imagination.
Although they maintain a sustained zoocentric perspective, by pushing the
boundaries of plausibility these authors avoid the issues of ‘accuracy’ or ‘truth’
that preoccupied the Nature Fakers controversy. Consequently, however, these
texts are often read as ‘anthropomorphic fantasy’ or exaggerated ‘science
fictio
n.’ As such, I suggest that both the original wild animal stories and the
speculative narratives addressed in this chapter rely on paratext to reinforce
their zoocentric commitment. Due to the emphasis on nonhuman perspectives
within the text itself, introductions, prefaces, and afterwords can be necessary
to shape readers’ interpretations. The marginalization of these texts means that
there has been very little scholarship published on any of them. Hence, my
close analysis must be of a different kind to that of the previous chapters. In the
final section, I will use my reading of
White as the Waves to reflect back on the
wild animal story and the other zoocentric texts. Using practical zoocriticism, I
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will consider the possibilities for their reciprocal communication with scientific
researchers.
