Book chapter
Dystopian or utopian fiction? The sociological imagination and the representation of pandemic futures in The Animals in That Country
Human-Animal Relationships in Times of Pandemic and Climate Crises, pp.168-186
Routledge, 1
09/2024
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Abstract
Engagement with imagined worlds, particularly utopian, has long been of interest to sociologists. While utopian fiction may seem to best realize the 'promise' of the sociological imagination, dystopian fiction has tended to be neglected. Dystopias, however, are research-based worlds rich with possibilities for sociological analysis. This chapter critically examines The Animals in That Country, a dystopian pandemic novel published during Australia's initial COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, questioning for whom this imagined world might be other than dystopic. The chapter addresses the novel's critique of human-animal relations in the fictional pandemic 'new normal', including other species' view of the human animal; human language as a barrier between species; the pervasive structures of the animal-industrial complex and the im/possibilities of human empathy for non-human animals. Issues of language and empathy are central tenets of the historic normalization of other animal oppression. The Animals in That Country explicates the social construction of empathy, considering how a languaged more-than-human-world might judge us, suggests postcolonial acknowledgement of interdependence and acknowledges the significance of structural norms affecting a wide range of destructive human-animal relations. The presence of a main character who is a dingo creates a range of opportunities for exploration of the impacts of ideologies of capitalism and human exceptionalism. Ultimately, the challenges themselves eschew the dystopian despair Thaler has characterized as 'if this goes on' (2021), providing sociological possibilities for multispecies justice in times of COVID and climate crisis and furthering argument for the usefulness of dystopian fiction among sociologists.
Details
- Title
- Dystopian or utopian fiction? The sociological imagination and the representation of pandemic futures in The Animals in That Country
- Creators
- Josephine Browne
- Contributors
- Josephine Browne (Editor)Zoei Sutton (Editor)
- Publication Details
- Human-Animal Relationships in Times of Pandemic and Climate Crises, pp.168-186
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 1
- Identifiers
- 991013225783302368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter