Instead of making readers into better people, what if fiction could help us to become better animals? On Fiction and Being a Good Animal argues that we should abandon the persistent humanist idea that fiction can produce better people. Instead, we should read and value fiction according to its ability to help us to envision being better animals. Inspired by Theodor W. Adorno, David Rando defines a good animal as one who does not live a life of domination. He argues that when readers approach fiction’s wishful images with non-anthropocentric expectations, we are rewarded by anthropocosmic visions of the world - ones in which humans are in and with the world but no longer at the centre of it.
In compelling readings of Agustina Bazterrica, T. C. Boyle, Leonora Carrington, Marian Engel, Karen Joy Fowler, Franz Kafka, Doris Lessing, Clarice Lispector, Kenzaburo Oe, Olga Tokarczuk, and Jesmyn Ward, the book explores wishful images that pertain to the nonhuman and more-than-human worlds. Readers will discover in this fiction wishful images relating to irreconcilable minds and experiences, human-nonhuman family relationships, love and risk across race and species, and shared vulnerability, communion and pleasure.

About the Author

David P. Rando is Professor in the Department of English at Trinity University, Texas, USA. He is the author of six books: Artificial Fiction: Imagining Literary Possibility Beyond the Human (2026), On Fiction and Being a Good Animal (2024), Doing Animal Studies with Androids, Aliens, and Ghosts: Defamiliarizing Human–Nonhuman Animal Relationships in Fiction (2023), Hope, Form, and Future in the Work of James Joyce (2022), Hope and Wish Image in Music Technology (2017) and Modernist Fiction and News: Representing Experience in the Early Twentieth Century (2011).

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Store Description

Visit Seller's Storefront

Seller's business information

Edward Bowditch Ltd
Exstowe, Exton, Exeter, EX3 0PP, United Kingdom

Sale & Shipping Terms

Terms of Sale

Legal entity name: Edward Bowditch Ltd
Legal entity form: Limited company
Business correspondence address: Exstowe, Exton, Exeter, EX3 0PP
Company registration number: 04916632
VAT registration: GB834241546
Authorised representative: Mr. E. Bowditch

Shipping Terms

Orders usually dispatched within two working days. Please note that at this time all domestic United Kingdom orders are sent by trackable UPS courier, we choose not to offer a lower cost alternative.

Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.

Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Order quantity	7 to 14 business days	2 to 3 business days
First item	US$ 20.15	US$ 33.58

Delivery times are set by sellers and vary by carrier and location. Orders passing through Customs may face delays and buyers are responsible for any associated duties or fees. Sellers may contact you regarding additional charges to cover any increased costs to ship your items.