The War against Animals in Guadalupe Nettel's Natural Histories : Speciesism, Sexism, and Classism
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In her short story collection Natural Histories (2013), the Mexican author Guadalupe Nettel disrupts traditional anthropocentric narratives by portraying nonhuman animals as subjects with agency and subjectivity, capable of creating kinships and distinct cultures, resisting injustice, and expressing deep pain and grief. The paper analyses two of Nettel's stories – “The Marriage of the Red Fish” and “War in the Trash Cans” that question the traditional Western portrayal and treatment of fish and cockroaches respectively while simultaneously opposing the status quo. While the first story intertwines sexism with speciesism as both the human and nonhuman females are “consumed” by their male counterpart, the second story reveals the intersections of speciesism and classism as both the working class protagonist and the cockroaches are treated as “invasive species”. Nettel challenges the violent human sovereignty over other animals as well as the colonial constructs of patriarchy and classism. |
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