Cirrus@Austlit

'Writers of the Romantic tradition have often sought a reconciliation with nature, and animals have provided a source of connection through which writers can explore the human-nonhuman relationship. Animal welfare, animal rights and vegetarianism were some of the considerations advanced by Romantic writers of the time questioning Cartesian ideas of animals as mechanistic. Mary Shelley and Herman Melville used anthropomorphic creatures to explore the human- nonhuman animal boundary and advance the idea of nonhuman animals as conscious and agential beings. In this paper, I examine 'Only the Animals' by Ceridwen Dovey, a contemporary novel which seeks to reconsider the animal voice in post-Romantic literary fiction. I also consider the influence of posthumanist thinking on representation and the relationships between human and nonhuman animals with reference to the work of Marc Bekoff and Cary Wolfe.' (Publication abstract)