Doing Animal Studies with Androids Aliens and Ghosts

Exploring what can be learnt when literary critics in the field of animal studies temporarily direct attention <i>away</i> from representations of nonhuman animals in literature and <i>towards</i>liminal figures like androids aliens and ghosts this book examines the boundaries of humanness. Simultaneously it encourages the reader both to see nonhuman animals afresh and to reimagine the terms of our relationships with them.<br/><br/>Examining imaginative texts by writers such as Octavia Butler Philip K. Dick Kazuo Ishiguro Jeanette Winterson and J. M. Coetzee this book looks at depictions of androids that redefine traditional humanist qualities such as hope and uniqueness. It examines alien visions that unmask the racist and heteronormative roots of speciesism. And it unpacks examples of ghosts and spirits who offer posthumous visions of having-been-human that decenter anthropocentrism. In doing so it leaves open the potential for better relationships and futures with nonhuman animals.