{"title":"How to Read Fishes: Science, Empathy, and Salar the Salmon","authors":"Candice Allmark-Kent","doi":"10.1163/15685306-12341569","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\nDespite the interdisciplinarity of human-animal studies, there has been little research about the interactions between science and literature in relation to nonhuman animals. This paper explores the representation of Atlantic salmons (Salmo salar) and brown trouts (Salmo trutta) in Henry Williamson’s classic work of animal fiction, Salar the Salmon (1935). In particular, the analysis focuses on depictions of mental states and subjective experiences in fishes. This work offers the first animal-centric analysis of the text, while also addressing the marginalization of fishes in literary animal studies. The wider purpose is to identify the ways in which fiction can influence public perceptions and encourage empathy in readers. The ultimate aim is to improve our methods of communicating about fishes in both literature and science.","PeriodicalId":22000,"journal":{"name":"Society & Animals","volume":"1 1","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2021-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Society & Animals","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341569","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Despite the interdisciplinarity of human-animal studies, there has been little research about the interactions between science and literature in relation to nonhuman animals. This paper explores the representation of Atlantic salmons (Salmo salar) and brown trouts (Salmo trutta) in Henry Williamson’s classic work of animal fiction, Salar the Salmon (1935). In particular, the analysis focuses on depictions of mental states and subjective experiences in fishes. This work offers the first animal-centric analysis of the text, while also addressing the marginalization of fishes in literary animal studies. The wider purpose is to identify the ways in which fiction can influence public perceptions and encourage empathy in readers. The ultimate aim is to improve our methods of communicating about fishes in both literature and science.
期刊介绍:
Society & Animals publishes studies that describe and analyze our experiences of non-human animals from the perspective of various disciplines within both the Social Sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science) and the Humanities (e.g., history, literary criticism).
The journal specifically deals with subjects such as human-animal interactions in various settings (animal cruelty, the therapeutic uses of animals), the applied uses of animals (research, education, medicine and agriculture), the use of animals in popular culture (e.g. dog-fighting, circus, animal companion, animal research), attitudes toward animals as affected by different socializing agencies and strategies, representations of animals in literature, the history of the domestication of animals, the politics of animal welfare, and the constitution of the animal rights movement.