Haunted by the specter of the animal other : reading beyond the human in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series

Abstract

This article offers a close literary analysis of Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels through the theoretical rubric of Critical Animal Studies. I demonstrate how animals haunt the texts and how serious and respectful scholarly engagement with the specter of the animal other allows fresh insights and ways of thinking to emerge. As the analysis develops, I deploy the conceptual tools of Vegan Studies to suggest that meaningful multispecies relationships require us to devise radically innovative terminological, epistemological and ontological frameworks. The questions that arise when reading beyond the human in these novels create pathways that allow us to take some tentative steps towards a world that is more just for animals and more reflective of the "love" most people profess for the animals with whom they share their lives and homes. This article is an interrogation of literary representations and the assumptions that are embedded in those representations, a provocation to read beyond the human and a political plea for a more just world for all members of our societies. As a necessary first step, I argue that we must, at the very least, "see" the animal other when we read.