Creaturely Poetics: Animality and Vulnerability in Literature and Film

by Anat Pick

Simone Weil once wrote that "the vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence," establishing a relationship between vulnerability, beauty, and existence transcending the separation of species. Her conception of a radical ethics and aesthetics could be characterized as a new poetics of species, forcing a rethinking of the body's significance, both human and animal. Exploring the "logic of flesh" and the use of the body to mark species identity, Anat Pick reimagines a poetics that begins with the vulnerability of bodies, not the omnipotence of thought. Pick proposes a "creaturely" approach based on the shared embodiedness of humans and animals and a postsecular perspective on human-animal relations. She turns to literature, film, and other cultural texts, challenging the familiar inventory of the consciousness, language, morality, and dignity. Reintroducing Weil's elaboration of such themes as witnessing, commemoration, and collective memory, Pick identifies the animal within all humans, emphasizing the corporeal and its issues of power and freedom. In her poetics of the creaturely, powerlessness is the point at which aesthetic and ethical thinking must begin.

Genres: Animals, Theory

249 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ece · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would certainly recommend this to:
-academy people in literature, CAS, and film studies.
-People with academic background who wants to think more about what nature, creature, human, animal are/could be/were made to be.

Marvelous sentences, intriguing concepts/ideas and not very easy to get (!) especially when there are many references to Simone Weil, and religion, especially for an atheist who doesn't know about Weil's philosophy. But I survived and survived well! Don't worry, the book isn't secretly trying to make you believe in any god.

Her work overall is really authentic, intellectually satisfying and inspiring. I'd recommend reading her articles too.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge Weil fan, and frankly, I could have just skipped the first chapter on the holocaust -- but the sections of Herzog are really really good.