Media Studies Online

Animals & Media

Overview

Humans have been weaving stories and creating art featuring animal subjects since time immemorial. Through these representations, animals are anthropomorphized, ascribed symbolism and attributed with any number of human prejudices, ideals, or fantasies. An ongoing, and often conflicting, relationship exists between the actual animal and the images of the animal. Animal images abound in nearly every area of popular culture and media. These animal images both inform and shape public perceptions toward the living, embodied animals. Careful examination of these human-generated images help us better understand perceptions and attitudes toward animals, the environment, and the natural world.

Animal Studies (also Human-Animal Studies or Critical Animal Studies) is a relatively young, yet very broad interdisciplinary field of research (and practice). Broadly, Animal Studies may include veterinary medicine and zoology, ethics and animal welfare, philosophy and metaphysics, law and policy, human-animal relationships and anthropology (or anthrozoology), and much more. This resource list is particularly focused on animals in (and as) human culture, including literature, visual art, moving pictures, and other media.

Recommended Reading

• Animal, Erica Fudge (Reaktion Books, 2004)
• Critical Terms for Animal Studies, Edited by Lori Gruen (University of Chicago Press, 2018)
• When Species Meet, Donna Haraway (Minnesota University Press, 2007)
• Looking at Animals in Human History, Linda Kalof (Reaktion Books, 2007)
• Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies, Margo DeMello (Columbia University Press, 2021)
• A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans with A Theory of Meaning, Jakob von Uexküll (Minnesota University Press, 2010)

Journals (Open Access)

• Animalia: An Anthrozoology Journal, Created and maintained by students and alumni of the Anthrozoology Master of Science program at Canisius College.
• Animal Studies Journal, Published by the University of Wollongong Australia.
• Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Independently published.
• Between the Species: A Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals, Published through the support of the Philosophy Department and Digital Commons at California Polytechnic State University.
• Journal for Critical Animal Studies, A project of the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS).

Books, Edited Volumes

• Animal Comics: Multispecies Storyworlds, Edited by David Herman (Bloomsbury, 2017)
• Creatural Fictions: Human-Animal Relationships in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature, Edited by David Herman (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
• Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture, Edited by Sanna Karkulehto, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen, and Essi Varis (Routledge, 2020)
• Outside the Anthropological Machine: Crossing the Human-Animal Divide and Other Exit Strategies, Edited by Chiara Mengozzi (Routledge, 2021)
• Interrogating Boundaries of the Nonhuman: Literature, Climate Change, and Environmental Crises edited by Matthias Stephan and Sune Borkfelt (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022).

Books, Monographs

• Picturing the Beast: Animals, Identity, and Representation, Steve Baker (University of Illinois Press, 1993/2001)
• Postmodern Animal, Steve Baker (Reaktion Books, 2000)
• Wildlife Films, Derek Bousé (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000)
• Animals in Film, Jonathan Burt (Reaktion Books, 2002)
• Watching Wildlife, Cynthia Chris (University of Minnesota Press, 2006)
• Narratology Beyond the Human: Storytelling and Animal Life, David Herman (Oxford University Press, 2018)
• Introduction to Animals and Visual Culture, Randy Malamud (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
• Animal Stories: Narrating across Species Lines, Susan McHugh (University of Minnesota Press, 2011)
• Animals on Television: The Cultural Making of the Non-Human, Brett Mills (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
• Popular Media and Animals, Claire Molloy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
• Animal Life and the Moving Image, Michael Lawrence and Laura McMahon (Bloomsbury, 2015)

Books Series

• Animal, Reaktion Books
• Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures, Penn State University Press
• Animals, Culture, and Society, Temple University Press
• The Animal Turn, Michigan State University Press
• Human-Animal Studies, Brill
• Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature, Palgrave Macmillan
• Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture, Routledge

Playlist

• Dog Wears Camera That Takes Pictures When He Gets Excited
• Hungry Hens: Live Chicken Coop Cam
• Magpies Help Each Other Remove Tracking Devices
• Pengiun Selfie
• San Andreas Deer Cam

Further Reading

• Animal Studies Bibliography,Project of the Animal Studies Program at Michigan State University
• Human-Animal Studies Journals, List from the Animals & Society Institute

References

• Brown, Lisa. 2011. “An Introduction to The Illustrated Animal.” Antennae, no. 16 (Spring): 3–6.
• Malamud, Randy. 2012. An Introduction to Animals and Visual Culture. The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Marvin, Garry, and Susan McHugh. 2014. “In It Together: An Introduction to Human- Animal Studies.” In Routledge Handbook of Human-Animal Studies, edited by Garry Marvin and Susan McHugh, First edition, 1–9. London; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• McHugh, Susan, and Robert McKay. 2013. “Being and Seeing Literary Animals.” Antennae, no. 24 (Spring): 4-6.
• Molloy, Claire. 2011. Popular Media and Animals. Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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