Sensing Slaughter

Exploring the Sounds and Smells of Nonhuman Literary Encounters

Bibliographic Data

ID20038784
AuthorsSune Borkfelt (0000-0003-4794-1118, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages225-240
Publication date2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueAnimal Encounters (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherJ.B. Metzler (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/978-3-476-04939-1_14
OpenAlexW2992963403
ISBN9783476049391
LanguageEN
References cited15

In literary analysis as in real life, the visual holds a privileged position as the experience most often intellectualized and/or aestheticized. However, increased analytical focus on the phenomena of sound and smell often open up new perspectives on the experiences of literary characters and on the nature of experience as such. This is especially compelling in the case of texts in which humans encounter nonhumans (and vice versa). Through a focus on encounters with animal markets and slaughterhouses in texts from the nineteenth century onwards, this paper attempts to theorize the literary experience of the sounds and smells of nonhuman animals. Hence, it is argued that a heightened focus on other senses than the visual opens up different potential and allows for reading experiences that are perhaps more emotive and intuitive, rather than rationalized, and which can highlight nonhuman agency. In particular, reading scenes of slaughter through the senses in this way may lead to a heightened awareness of the distance or proximity of slaughter in readers’ lives

Aesthetics · Art · Cognitive science · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Communication · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Music History and Culture · Psychology