Animal Narratology

Animal Narratology interrogates what it means to narrate to speak-speak for on behalf of-and to voice or represent life beyond the human which is in itself as different as insects bears and dogs are from each other and yet more as individual as a single mouse horse or puma. The varied contributions to this interdisciplinary Special Issue highlight assumptions about the human perception of attitude toward and responsibility for the animals that are read and written about thus demonstrating that just as the animal does not exist neither does the human. In their zoopoetic focus the analyses are aware that animal narratology ultimately always contains an approximation of an animal perspective in human terms and terminology yet they make clear that what matters is how the animal is approximated and that there is an effort to approach and encounter the non-human in the first place. Many of the analyses come to the conclusion that literary animals give readers the opportunity to expand their own points of view both on themselves and others by adopting anothers perspective to the degree that such an endeavor is possible. Ultimately the contributions call for a recognition of the many spaces moments and modes in which human lives are entangled with those of animals-one of which is located within the creative bounds of storytelling.