an other: a black feminist consideration of animal life

by Sharon Patricia Holland

In an other , Sharon Patricia Holland offers a new theorization of the human animal/divide by shifting focus from distinction toward relation in ways that acknowledge that humans are also animals. Holland centers ethical commitments over ontological concerns to spotlight those moments when Black people ethically relate with animals. Drawing on writers and thinkers ranging from Hortense Spillers, Sara Ahmed, Toni Morrison, and C. E. Morgan to Jane Bennett, Jacques Derrida, and Donna Haraway, Holland decenters the human in Black feminist thought to interrogate blackness, insurgence, flesh, and femaleness. She examines MOVE’s incarnation as an animal liberation group; uses sovereignty in Morrison’s A Mercy to understand blackness, indigeneity, and the animal; analyzes Charles Burnett’s films as commentaries on the place of animals in Black life; and shows how equestrian novels address Black and animal life in ways that rehearse the practices of the slavocracy. By focusing on doing rather than being, Holland demonstrates that Black life is not solely likened to animal life; it is relational and world-forming with animal lives.

Genres: Feminism, Race, Nonfiction, Black Literature, Theory

344 pages, Hardcover

Published August 15, 2023

About the author

Sharon Patricia Holland is Associate Professor of English, African and African American Studies, and Women's Studies at Duke University. She is the author of The Erotic Life of Racism, Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity, and a co-editor of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country.

Reviews

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather different book from what I expected, mainly because it challenges the idea of a centralized and cohesive argument. It was much more challenging in many ways, especially on the level of the writing. Holland's style reminded me a lot of Katherine McKittrick's and Zakiyyah Iman Jackson's. I am still thinking about one point where I disagreed with the text, mainly that Agamben's discussion of the Holocaust is a case of historicity confined to a single moment rather than a longer issue still playing out in many ways. Otherwise, I enjoyed Holland making academic writing feel alive, fluid, intermixing personal reactions and less "formal" elements with close reading and analysis of complex theoretical texts.

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

picked the book up for its information on the Black and Animal liberation group MOVE but the whole book was excellent and challenged me in the best ways. I don’t know why Duke sent me my copy super early but pick it comes out on August 15th! be there or be square!

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon Patricia Holland entwirft in an other eine neue Theorie der Grenze zwischen Mensch und Tier aus schwarzer feministischer Perspektive. Statt die Differenz zu betonen, rückt sie die Beziehung in den Mittelpunkt und erinnert daran, dass auch Menschen Tiere sind.
Holland untersucht jene Momente, in denen Schwarze Gemeinschaften ethische Beziehungen zu Tieren eingehen, und bringt dabei Denkfiguren von Toni Morrison, Jacques Derrida und Donna Haraway produktiv ins Spiel. So liest sie die Gruppe MOVE als eine Form radikaler Tierbefreiungspraxis und nutzt Morrisons Roman A Mercy, um Kategorien wie Schwarzsein und Souveränität neu zu konfigurieren.
Indem sie den Akzent vom „Sein“ auf das „Tun“ verschiebt, macht Holland deutlich, dass Schwarzes Leben nicht im Sinne einer simplen Gleichsetzung im Tierischen aufgeht. Vielmehr entfaltet sich zwischen menschlichem und tierischem Leben eine gemeinsame, weltbildende Beziehung, die klassische Grenzziehungen unterläuft.

[Selena · Rating 1 out of 5]

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