"Zoopoéticas contemporâneas"

Abstract

My paper analyses some 20th century bestiaries, focusing on two types of the so-called contemporary “zooliterature”: the one characterized by fantastic/imaginary roots and the one marked by realistical, ethical, and ecological traits. The purpose is, through a critical vision of the western zoological traditions and an approach suitable to the theoretical demands of the contemporary world, to investigate how animals have been portrayed fictionally by writers who subvert or reinvent the bestiaries of the past. This article also discusses the question of the animals and their possible subjectivity, by examining the contributions of Jacques Derrida and J.M.Coetzee to recent debates on this matter in the fields of philosophy and literary theory.