Becoming-cat or what a woman’s body can do

Abstract

Drawing on a body of literature that considers narrative meaning emerging  in intra-species entanglements, in this paper I read Gwen John’s letters revolving around her relationship with the many cats she lived with throughout her life. I am particularly interested in throwing light at moments when a woman’s body makes strong connections with the animal’s body blurring the boundaries between humans and non-humans through a cosmological ethics of care. In doing so, I follow trails of Deleuze’s and Guattari’s idea of becoming-animal, as it is fleshed out through a narrative analysis of a modernist woman artist’s letters.