Mandatory non-anthropocentrism: The political unrealism of making metaethical demands in environmental ethics

Dockstader, Jason

doi:10.1108/s2051-5030(2013)0000013011

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

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“…By shifting the reader's perspective beyond anthropocentric framings, and focusing on animal issues and the environmental challenges with the help of a non-human lens, the novels in my study encourage the reader's "mandatory non-anthropocentrism" (Dockstader, 2013). By questioning the assumed moral superiority of humans over other species -a crucial question of environmental ethics philosophy highlighted by Brennan and Lo (2016) -these novels assign intrinsic value to the natural environment and animals.…”

Section: Eco-centrism and Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Acknowledging the issue of didacticism, my study explores ways in which an environmentally ethical position can be conveyed to young readers without moralizing. For instance, by showcasing environmental issues from the perspective of a tree character in A Monster Calls, the non-anthropocentric narrative challenges the simplistic duality of right and the wrong in human attitudes to nature, and implicitly guides the reader to what Dockstader (2013) and Brennan and Lo (2016) might call an environmentally ethical position.…”

Section: Eco-centrism and Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two magic realist novels The Midnight Zoo and A Monster Calls and one speculative novel, Eva, provide the reader with the possibility to take a non-anthropocentric view on the environment. This is essential for developing environmentally ethical attitudes according to critics such as Dockstader (2013), and Brennan and Lo (2016). This third space, as defined by Cooper, is the space where the reader's critical reflection is stimulated.…”

Section: Crossing Boundaries With Non-anthropocentric Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Narrating Humanity : Children's Literature and Global Citizenship Education

Yarova¹

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The aim of this thesis is to explore how children’s magic realist fiction contributes to critical Global Citizenship Education (GCE). This study argues that children’s magic realist literature can facilitate young readers’ knowledge and understanding of human rights issues and promote environmental awareness in a non-didactic manner by representing global issues from non-human perspectives. The thesis comprises four articles. The first study explores the non-human perspective of an animalhuman ‘cyborg’ protagonist in Peter Dickinson’s novel Eva (1988). The study shows how the non-human perspective allows the reader to go beyond anthropocentric boundaries in order to explore the issue of treating the other. The second study investigates an animal perspective on the Roma genocide along with the mistreatment of animals in the Second World War in Sonya Hartnett’s The Midnight Zoo (2010). The animal perspective shows human intolerance of other humans (the Roma) intertwined with human actions towards animals and encourages the reader in a non-didactic way to adopt an eco-philosophical standpoint. The third study is concerned with the representation of the Holocaust from the point of view of a supernatural narrator, Death, in Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005). Death’s inverted magic realist narrative facilitates the young reader’s understanding of human rights issues and represents the history of the genocide in a non-didactic manner. The fourth study examines the relationships between humans and the natural environment shown from the non-human perspective of a tree. Taking the lens of holistic ecology, this study explores the representation of human – nature relationships in Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls (2011) and how the novel guides the child-reader towards an awareness of environmental issues.

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Section: Eco-centrism and Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Eco-centrism and Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crossing Boundaries With Non-anthropocentric Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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