RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Mark Twain’s Late Animal Tales: Sentimental Anthropomorphism as Anthropocene Critique
T2 Los últimos cuentos de animales de Mark Twain: El antropomorfismo sentimental como crítica del antropoceno
A1 Klestil, Matthias
K1 Animal Narrators
K1 Anthropocene
K1 Anthropomorphism
K1 Mark Twain
K1 Race
K1 Species
AB This article rereads two of Mark Twain’s late and most explicitly political but understudiedtexts involving non-human animals, the short story “A Dog’s Tale” (1903) and the novellaA Horse’s Tale (1906), within an Anthropocene context. Although the texts came into exist-ence long before the notion of the Anthropocene was around, the article argues that Twain’ssentimental anthropomorphism has relevance as Anthropocene critique and offers models foralternative narratives of the Anthropocene. After briefly introducing relevant historical andconceptual contexts, my analysis focuses on two specific facets of Twain’s narrative technique,spotlighting its potential as Anthropocene critique and for Anthropocene storytelling. Onthe one hand, the article shows that Twain’s sentimental anthropomorphism resonates withthe Anthropocene by rescaling the imagination through its anthropomorphized people andarguing for an alternative, collective ethics of care that transcends species boundaries. Onthe other hand, I demonstrate how Twain’s technique allows for rethinking and troublingthe caesurae of species and race as arbitrary constructions, which interlinks with recogniz-ing the Anthropocene as (also) a racial process.
PB Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de La Laguna
SN e-2530-8335
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/41800
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/41800
LA en
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 10-abr-2025