Tanja Schwalm | University of Canterbury/Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha (original) (raw)
Papers by Tanja Schwalm
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Sep 1, 2006
The Western circus tradition provides a particularly relevant framework for representations of an... more The Western circus tradition provides a particularly relevant framework for representations of animals in magic realist fiction, since magic realism and the circus are both closely related to Bakhtin's idea of the carnivalesque. Conceptualized as “circensian spaces”, the circus' influence on magical realism manifests itself as what Foucault calls “heterotopias”, “other spaces”, which are inherently contradictory, polyphonic, and “impossible to think”. As the circus traditionally represents, reinforces and at the same time subverts Western conceptualizations of animals, this discussion focuses on the relationship between Linnaean taxonomy and circensian spaces in Peter Carey's Illywhacker, Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. This article examines the significance of circensian animal spaces within the Australian and Latin American contexts, and discusses why “circensian animals” may be particularly suitable agents in the subversion of Western paradigms.
Relations, Jun 1, 2014
The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi , originall... more The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi , originally published in 2001, highlights the role of exotic, charismatic animals for the marketing of fiction to a world-wide readership. Deploying zoo and circus animal imagery, Life of Pi emphasises commercially attractive animals in packaging and content. Indeed, the notion that animal entertainment within zoos especially is not only attractive, but also beneficial to the animals themselves, reassures consumers and alleviates feelings of guilt. Life of Pi succeeds commercially for many of the same reasons that zoos profit from exhibiting non-human animals. It portrays a mythology of “good zoos” as a kind of Ark, ostensibly underpinned by science and research, and thus represents a deeply conservative reaction to growing calls that for ethical and environmental reasons we need to rethink our consumption-based relationship to animals. This paper examines some of the novel’s arguments in favour of zoos and discusses the ways in which a “story with animals is the better story.” This paper makes use of an activist approach to literature and starts from the premise that an Animal Studies approach necessarily takes the interests of animals and their subjectivity as the central concern
his unwavering support. His knowledge and encouragement were inspiring, his guidance and comments... more his unwavering support. His knowledge and encouragement were inspiring, his guidance and comments immensely helpful, and his humanity humbling. I am lucky to have had a supervisor whose dedication to his students is known to be above and beyond the call of duty, and I could not have had a better one. I am also very grateful to the following, who have successively co-supervised: Dr Erin Mackie, for helpful comments on early drafts and chapters; Dr John Newton, for the gentlest whip-cracking ever; and Professor Patrick Evans, Rescuer of Damsels in Distress, for listening, being there and giving good advice on matters inside and outside of academia when it was most needed.
BRILL eBooks, 2007
In consumer capitalist economies where animal practices are highly industrialized, it is still, l... more In consumer capitalist economies where animal practices are highly industrialized, it is still, legally and socially acceptable to use performing animals, and circuses and circus lobby groups portray their human-animal relations positively. This chapter illustrates the controversy over ‘exotic’ animal acts, and examines its influence on the self-portrayal and marketing rhetoric of circuses, as well as on their representations of animals and animal performances. It aims to show how this imagery is challenged by animal rights and welfare groups, such as the global animal advocacy organization 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) and the New Zealand organization 'Save Animals From Exploitation' (SAFE). The chapter proposes that images of circus animals provided by animal advocacy organizations are no different from what the audiences actually see, when they visit the menagerie backstage. Finally, the chapter discusses whether this debate contributes to a perceptible shift in cultural attitudes towards human-animal relations. Keywords: animal acts; exotic animal acts; human-animal relations; PETA; Save Animals From Exploitation (SAFE); virtual circus
Australian Literary Studies, Jun 1, 2009
Knowing Animals, 2007
... Albrecht writes, with reference to The Animal Enterprise Protection Act, signed by George W... more ... Albrecht writes, with reference to The Animal Enterprise Protection Act, signed by George W. Bush, that PPF's ongoing efforts to curtail the other side's use of terrorism was Ànally victorious (211) and that PPF has proven something can indeed be done to Àght back(212). ...
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2006
... 357). In Allende's novel, the narrator, Alba, remarks that Marxism did not sta... more ... 357). In Allende's novel, the narrator, Alba, remarks that Marxism did not stand a chance in Latin America because it did not allow for the magical side of things, as her grandfather, Esteban Trueba, comments on the military parades of the dictatorship: Bread, circuses, and ...
Relations, 2014
The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel " Life of Pi " , origi... more The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel " Life of Pi " , originally published in 2001, highlights the role of exotic, charismatic animals for the marketing of fiction to a worldwide readership. Deploying zoo and circus animal imagery, " Life of Pi " emphasises commercially attractive animals in packaging and content. Indeed, the notion that animal entertainment within zoos especially is not only attractive, but also beneficial to the animals themselves, reassures consumers and alleviates feelings of guilt. "Life of Pi " succeeds commercially for many of the same reasons that zoos profit from exhibiting non-human animals. It portrays a mythology of "good zoos" as a kind of ark, ostensibly underpinned by science and research, and thus represents a deeply conservative reaction to growing calls that for ethical and environmental reasons we need to rethink our consumption-based relationship to animals. This paper examines some of the novel's arguments in favour of zoos and discusses the ways in which a "story with animals is the better story". This paper makes use of an activist approach to literature and starts from the premise that an Animal Studies approach necessarily takes the interests of animals and their subjectivity as the central concern.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Sep 1, 2006
The Western circus tradition provides a particularly relevant framework for representations of an... more The Western circus tradition provides a particularly relevant framework for representations of animals in magic realist fiction, since magic realism and the circus are both closely related to Bakhtin's idea of the carnivalesque. Conceptualized as “circensian spaces”, the circus' influence on magical realism manifests itself as what Foucault calls “heterotopias”, “other spaces”, which are inherently contradictory, polyphonic, and “impossible to think”. As the circus traditionally represents, reinforces and at the same time subverts Western conceptualizations of animals, this discussion focuses on the relationship between Linnaean taxonomy and circensian spaces in Peter Carey's Illywhacker, Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. This article examines the significance of circensian animal spaces within the Australian and Latin American contexts, and discusses why “circensian animals” may be particularly suitable agents in the subversion of Western paradigms.
Relations, Jun 1, 2014
The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi , originall... more The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi , originally published in 2001, highlights the role of exotic, charismatic animals for the marketing of fiction to a world-wide readership. Deploying zoo and circus animal imagery, Life of Pi emphasises commercially attractive animals in packaging and content. Indeed, the notion that animal entertainment within zoos especially is not only attractive, but also beneficial to the animals themselves, reassures consumers and alleviates feelings of guilt. Life of Pi succeeds commercially for many of the same reasons that zoos profit from exhibiting non-human animals. It portrays a mythology of “good zoos” as a kind of Ark, ostensibly underpinned by science and research, and thus represents a deeply conservative reaction to growing calls that for ethical and environmental reasons we need to rethink our consumption-based relationship to animals. This paper examines some of the novel’s arguments in favour of zoos and discusses the ways in which a “story with animals is the better story.” This paper makes use of an activist approach to literature and starts from the premise that an Animal Studies approach necessarily takes the interests of animals and their subjectivity as the central concern
his unwavering support. His knowledge and encouragement were inspiring, his guidance and comments... more his unwavering support. His knowledge and encouragement were inspiring, his guidance and comments immensely helpful, and his humanity humbling. I am lucky to have had a supervisor whose dedication to his students is known to be above and beyond the call of duty, and I could not have had a better one. I am also very grateful to the following, who have successively co-supervised: Dr Erin Mackie, for helpful comments on early drafts and chapters; Dr John Newton, for the gentlest whip-cracking ever; and Professor Patrick Evans, Rescuer of Damsels in Distress, for listening, being there and giving good advice on matters inside and outside of academia when it was most needed.
BRILL eBooks, 2007
In consumer capitalist economies where animal practices are highly industrialized, it is still, l... more In consumer capitalist economies where animal practices are highly industrialized, it is still, legally and socially acceptable to use performing animals, and circuses and circus lobby groups portray their human-animal relations positively. This chapter illustrates the controversy over ‘exotic’ animal acts, and examines its influence on the self-portrayal and marketing rhetoric of circuses, as well as on their representations of animals and animal performances. It aims to show how this imagery is challenged by animal rights and welfare groups, such as the global animal advocacy organization 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) and the New Zealand organization 'Save Animals From Exploitation' (SAFE). The chapter proposes that images of circus animals provided by animal advocacy organizations are no different from what the audiences actually see, when they visit the menagerie backstage. Finally, the chapter discusses whether this debate contributes to a perceptible shift in cultural attitudes towards human-animal relations. Keywords: animal acts; exotic animal acts; human-animal relations; PETA; Save Animals From Exploitation (SAFE); virtual circus
Australian Literary Studies, Jun 1, 2009
Knowing Animals, 2007
... Albrecht writes, with reference to The Animal Enterprise Protection Act, signed by George W... more ... Albrecht writes, with reference to The Animal Enterprise Protection Act, signed by George W. Bush, that PPF's ongoing efforts to curtail the other side's use of terrorism was Ànally victorious (211) and that PPF has proven something can indeed be done to Àght back(212). ...
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2006
... 357). In Allende's novel, the narrator, Alba, remarks that Marxism did not sta... more ... 357). In Allende's novel, the narrator, Alba, remarks that Marxism did not stand a chance in Latin America because it did not allow for the magical side of things, as her grandfather, Esteban Trueba, comments on the military parades of the dictatorship: Bread, circuses, and ...
Relations, 2014
The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel " Life of Pi " , origi... more The visually striking tiger on the cover of Man Booker Prize-winning novel " Life of Pi " , originally published in 2001, highlights the role of exotic, charismatic animals for the marketing of fiction to a worldwide readership. Deploying zoo and circus animal imagery, " Life of Pi " emphasises commercially attractive animals in packaging and content. Indeed, the notion that animal entertainment within zoos especially is not only attractive, but also beneficial to the animals themselves, reassures consumers and alleviates feelings of guilt. "Life of Pi " succeeds commercially for many of the same reasons that zoos profit from exhibiting non-human animals. It portrays a mythology of "good zoos" as a kind of ark, ostensibly underpinned by science and research, and thus represents a deeply conservative reaction to growing calls that for ethical and environmental reasons we need to rethink our consumption-based relationship to animals. This paper examines some of the novel's arguments in favour of zoos and discusses the ways in which a "story with animals is the better story". This paper makes use of an activist approach to literature and starts from the premise that an Animal Studies approach necessarily takes the interests of animals and their subjectivity as the central concern.