Teaching empathy and emotions : J. M. Coetzee's "The lives of animals" and human-animal studies

  • In "Teaching Empathy and Emotions: J. M. Coetzee's 'The Lives of Animals' and Human-Animal Studies," Alexandra Böhm focuses on one of the most influential novels in the field of HAS. In her article, she delineates the two main difficulties in teaching Coetzee's text: firstly, the text's protagonist, fierce and fearless Australian author Elizabeth Costello, is often less-than-lovable and offers few grounds for identification; secondly, the text's multilayered structure further problematizes the authorial voice. However, by focusing on Costello's reassessment of emotion and empathy, Böhm convincingly demonstrates that Coetzee's text offers possibilities for understanding the key concepts of HAS, such as animal agency, alterity, and the necessity of assuming a non-anthropocentric perspective. In the narrative, Costello employs empathy in her approach to animals, but is this also true of the metadiegetic level of Coetzee's text? Does the text itself suggest how to teach empathy? Alexandra Böhm demonstrates that it is possible to elicit affective responses to these questions through emotion journals and role-playing.

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Metadaten
Author:Alexandra BöhmGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-689172
ISBN:978-3-95808-402-5
Parent Title (English):Multispecies futures : new approaches to teaching human-animal studies / Andreas Hübner, Micha Gerrit Philipp Edlich, Maria Moss (eds)
Publisher:Neofelis Verlag
Place of publication:Berlin
Document Type:Part of a Book
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2022/07/22
Year of first Publication:2022
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2022/09/01
Tag:Human-Animal studies
Coetzee, J.M.: The lives of animals
GND Keyword:Coetzee, J.M.; Anthrozoologie; Einfühlung; Gefühl
Page Number:17
First Page:131
Last Page:147
HeBIS-PPN:500135134
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung
8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik
8 Literatur / 82 Englische, altenglische Literaturen / 820 Englische, altenglische Literaturen
Sammlungen:CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / Neofelis Verlag
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung-Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitung 4.0