Category Archives: Animals

Octopus for Christmas

December 25, 2013 No, not salmon, that eminently respectable candidate for a fishetarian dinner.  Octopus instead, still exotic and dubious-looking in this part of the world, but a common food staple in Japan and throughout the Mediterranean: in Spain, Portugal, … Continue reading

Posted in Animals, epic, Food in literature, Global South, oceans, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ruth Ozeki: Zen and Politics

December 18, 2013 Reading the papers for “American Literature in the World,” I’m struck by how few wrote on My Year of Meats.   Did people think it was too political, with too much of an agenda, out to get … Continue reading

Posted in Animals, Asia, Asian-American literature, Contemporary novel, Environmentalism, Genre, Religion | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Animals in Chicago

November 6, 2013 It seems right that the theme this year for the Chicago Humanities Festival should be “Animals: What Makes us Human.”   This city, after all, used to be called (and maybe is still called) hog butcher for … Continue reading

Posted in Americas, Animals, Atlantic, Diaspora, Environmentalism, Ethnicity, indigenous communities, Race, Spanish, World history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Linda Hogan, Herman Melville: People of the Whale

April 10, 2013 The Native Americans have always been there, of course.   The very name of the ship brings up their ghostly presence, for “Pequod, you will no doubt remember, was the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts … Continue reading

Posted in Animals, Asia, collaboration, Contemporary novel, Ethnicity, Native-American literature, Nineteenth-century literature, oceans, Race, WAr | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Michelle Cliff, Adrienne Rich: Animal Sound

April 3, 2013 It’s surprisingly difficult to find a photo of the two of them.   In fact I found only one.   Yet they’ve been together since 1976, a companionship of almost 40 years. Maybe photos aren’t the point? … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, African languages, Animals, Auditory field, Black-Jewish alliances, Caribbean literature, Contemporary literature, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Media, Music, peripheral networks | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Silko: The Chinese Connection

February 6, 2012 In 1985 Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Leslie Silko traveled together to China, going up the Li River in a boat. Kingston and Silko have now come out with new books — Kingston, I Love a … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Animals, Asia, Autobiography, China, Chinese art, collaboration, Comparative literature, Ethnicity, Native American language, Native-American literature, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment