Overview
- Traces the history of slaughter and the modern abattoir
- Considers narrative empathy and nonhuman characters in slaughterhouse fictions
- Explores rural and urban spaces and the space/place dynamics of slaughterhouses
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature (PSAAL)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Reading Slaughter: Abattoir Fictions, Space, and Empathy in Late Modernity examines literary depictions of slaughterhouses from the development of the industrial abattoir in the late nineteenth century to today. The book focuses on how increasing and ongoing isolation and concealment of slaughter from the surrounding society affects readings and depictions of slaughter and abattoirs in literature, and on the degree to which depictions of animals being slaughtered creates an avenue for empathic reactions in the reader or the opportunity for reflections on human-animal relations. Through chapters on abattoir fictions in relation to narrative empathy, anthropomorphism, urban spaces, rural spaces, human identities and horror fiction, Sune Borkfelt contributes to debates in literary animal studies, human-animal studies and beyond.
Reviews
“Sune Borkfelt is one of my favorite literary critics. His knowledge of literature is wide and deep, his critical mind is razor-sharp, and his ability to convey insights in eminently readable prose is enviable. This book is a case in point. In a series of astute and sensitive readings, Borkfelt offers a truly enlightening, thought-provoking study of literary depictions of animals, slaughter, and slaughterhouses, pointing the way toward the future of interdisciplinary literary scholarship.” (Mathias Clasen, Associate Professor of English Literature, Aarhus University, Denmark. Author of Why Horror Seduces (2017))
“Reading Slaughter is a game-changer for literary and animal studies. Through a startling array of fictions, Borkfelt shows how slaughterhouses emerge as leaky heterotopias, urban and invisible spaces through which writers can render the sufferings of animals as inextricable from those of people. Just as sounds and smells defy attempts to package modern-industrial meat as free from physical or psychic pain, Borkfelt shows, startling possibilities for fostering narrative empathy emerge through changing stories of slaughter.” (Susan McHugh, Professor of English, University of New England, United States, Author of Animal Stories (2011) and Love in a Time of Slaughters (2019))
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Sune Borkfelt lectures at Aarhus University, Denmark. His publications include articles and book chapters on nonhuman otherness, postcolonial animals, the naming of nonhuman animals, and the ethics of animal product marketing. He is also co-author of a critical research-based Danish book on hunting.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Reading Slaughter
Book Subtitle: Abattoir Fictions, Space, and Empathy in Late Modernity
Authors: Sune Borkfelt
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98915-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-98914-9Published: 07 May 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-98917-0Published: 08 May 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-98915-6Published: 06 May 2022
Series ISSN: 2634-6338
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6346
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 279
Topics: Fiction, Contemporary Literature, Cultural Studies, Literary History, Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science, Cognitive Psychology