Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory

Now that supposedly distinguishing marks of humanity, from reasoning to tool use, have been found in other species, how can we justify discriminating against nonhuman animals solely on basis of their species? And how must cultural studies and critical practices change to do justice to others who are not human? In Animal Rites, Cary Wolfe examines contemporary notions of humanism, ethics and animals by reconstructing a little known but crucial underground tradition of theorizing animal from Wittgenstein, Cavell and Lyotard to Levinas, Derrida, Zizek, Maturana and Varela. Through detailed readings of how discourses of race, sexuality, colonialism and animality interact in 20th-century American culture -…