Cirrus@Austlit

'The word ‘species’ is etymologically related to looking. Although its primary biological definition is that of beings that can interbreed,species can refer to things of like kind: thisrelates to the term’s Latin derivation, specere, meaning to look. Describing how things look and conveying this appearance to others (whether in writing, or in relaying a memory) typically involves the use of metaphor. This article reads a number of Australian texts in terms of interspecies relations between humans and sheep, and considers the use of metaphor—and metonymy—and the place of ethics in this relation, with a particular emphasis on the face of both human and sheep: how sheep and humans look, in both senses of the word.' (Author's introduction)