Review by Choice Review
Weil's book is a short, tightly argued presentation of the significance and direction of animal studies. Weil (Wesleyan Univ.) deftly synthesizes many of the important philosophical contributions in the field from the usual suspects--Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Giorgio Agamben, Martin Heidegger, and Donna Haraway--in a clear but complex manner. Drawing primarily from literary and artistic examples, she demonstrates how animal studies provides a post-humanist rather than anti-humanist alternative to post-Enlightenment thought. Weil explores the ethical questions raised in philosophical treatments of animals in a set of texts addressing animal domesticity and animal death. She ends with an important provocation, suggesting that animal studies needs to turn to its ultimate promise, not just thinking with animals but thinking about animals, not just how animals are useful to humans but how humans might be useful to animals. Her final chapters suggest that the ethical and political challenge of animal studies must also be political, transforming how humans utilize the power they exercise on and with animals. Providing an accessible overview and casting new eyes on familiar literature, Weil makes a significant contribution to animal studies and critical theory. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. C. E. Rasmussen University of Delaware
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review