Animalizing imagination: totemism, textuality and ecocriticism

Human-animal relations are not confined to the literal animal, but extend to psychological, textual and conceptual animal presences. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, including contemporary cultural events, this book tracks the significance of the animal for human thinking, imagination, religion and aesthetic life. Where humanity can be seen to have defined itself through difference from animal life, Alan Bleakley argues that a restoration to the animal commonwealth is essential in an era of ecological crisis, and this has opened up ecocriticism as a new arena of study.