Stray: Human-Animal Ethics in the Anthropocene

by Barbara Creed

This powerfully compelling polemic explores the relationship between human and animal in the context of the stray. Working through examples from both art and literature, with reference to the work of prominent philosophers, the book examines the different ways in which human discourse has labelled animals and people as strays, as well as what human and animal strays have in common. Collectively, it argues for the concept of ananthropogenic stray – a new form of stray produced in and by the Anthropocene, that is, as a result of the effects of human actions on nature. In doing so, the author profoundly lays bare the astonishing contradictions at the heart of the Anthropocene condition, relating to our treatment of non-human animals, and the way dominant nations and groups treat other human beings, such as religious minorities, refugees, and the homeless.

200 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Barbara Creed is Professor of Cinema Studies and Head of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. She is author of the acclaimed The Monstrous-feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Media Matrix: Sexing the New Reality, Phallic Panic: Film, Horror & the Primal Uncanny and Darwin's Screens: Evolutionary Aesthetics, Time and Sexual Display in the Cinema. She is also a well-known film critic and media commentator, and her writings on cinema have been translated into many languages for a range of international journals and anthologies.