Animals as Experiencing Entities: Theories and Historical Narratives

This volume explores the experiences of those with little or no power--usually, although not exclusively, animals. The theme of animals as experiencing entities is what links the chapters and characterises the volume. Broadly each author in this volume contributes in one of two ways. The first group, in Section 1, theoretically engages animal subjectivity, animal experiences, and ways in which these are to some extent accessible and knowable to humans. The second group of authors, in Section 2, offer narrative accounts about specific animals or groups of animals and explore to some extent their subjective historical experiences. In summary, the first section diversely theorises about animal experiences, while the second section’s authors assume animals’ subjective experiences and construct narratives that take into account how animals might have subjectively experienced historical phenomena.

Michael Glover is an animal historian specialising in cattle histories in southern Africa under the colonial period.He has a PhD from Leiden University (Netherlands) and University of the Free State (South Africa). Michael is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

Les Mitchell is a Research Associate at University of the Free State, International Studies Group. He is also a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.