Blood and Guts in Kathy Acker's Bestiary

Beschreibung

This book explores Kathy Acker's writing from the 1970s to the 1990s with a focus on her consistent referencing of animals. Where previous studies have analyzed Acker's critique of capitalism and patriarchal norms or her punk aesthetic or cut-and-paste plagiaristic style, this book charts a new course by concentrating on animals as central to her storytelling and the theory that grounds it. She begins her career by finding liberatory possibility in nonhuman species until she finally reaches apotheosis in a becoming-animal, the ultimate weapon in her battle against limiting human power structures. As the curve bends back toward a baseline, in Acker's later career she starts to question the viability of such embodiments, and animals begin to assert themselves more forcefully as agents who have their own interests, beings with value outside of any human gaze. That conflict ultimately redounds to open animal hostility toward human engagement as her writing, cut short by a cancer that would kill her in 1997, comes to an end. This book tracks the trajectory of her representation of animals over the course of her career.

Thomas Aielllo is Professor of History and Africana Studies at Valdosta State University, USA. He is the author of more than twenty books and more than sixty peer-reviewed journal articles. His work helped amend the Louisiana constitution to make nonunanimous juries illegal; his books have won multiple awards and have been nominated for others, including the Pulitzer Prize. He holds PhDs in history and anthrozoology and writes about the relationship between humans and animals, in particular the role of speciesism and human supremacy in creating vulnerabilities for nonhuman animals. He is co-founder and co-editor of the journal Animal History.

This book explores Kathy Acker's writing from the 1970s to the 1990s with a focus on her consistent referencing of animals. Where previous studies have analyzed Acker's critique of capitalism and patriarchal norms or her punk aesthetic or cut-and-paste plagiaristic style, this book charts a new course by concentrating on animals as central to her storytelling and the theory that grounds it. She begins her career by finding liberatory possibility in nonhuman species until she finally reaches apotheosis in a becoming-animal, the ultimate weapon in her battle against limiting human power structures. As the curve bends back toward a baseline, in Acker's later career she starts to question the viability of such embodiments, and animals begin to assert themselves more forcefully as agents who have their own interests, beings with value outside of any human gaze. That conflict ultimately redounds to open animal hostility toward human engagement as her writing, cut short by a cancer that would kill her in 1997, comes to an end. This book tracks the trajectory of her representation of animals over the course of her career.

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Thomas Aiello

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Literature and Animal Studies Poststructural Theory Kathy Acker Animal Studies Punk Transgression Pastiche

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