Eco Criticism and Critical Animal Studies

In recent years, pollution, deforestation, and the loss of species – among other issues – have created an urgent need to study various facets of literature and culture from an ecocritical viewpoint. In our seminars, we examine how different approaches – narrative and otherwise – reflect the way these dangers to our environment are dealt with in society. Within the scope of ecocritical theories, critical animal studies and human-animal studies occupy an increasingly central position. Indeed, the “animal turn,” as this paradigm shift is called, promotes new understandings of the role of animals. In recent years, scholars have begun to explore the agency of animals and to discuss their influence on storytelling and the construction of knowledge.