Putting Animals in Literature: Costello and Kafka Essay

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Introduction

The question of animals’ rights can hardly be taken seriously in modern society; the world of literature represented a clear philosophical and theoretical view on the role of wild and domestic creatures in human life. The modern world subjected the animals’ rights to a kind of utilitarianism though the cruelty towards them is completely unacceptable. The analysis of Elizabeth Costello written by Coetzee J. M. and Metamorphosis written by Kafka gives an opportunity to dive into the world of animals through evaluation of their lives about human interests and cultural traditions.

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Costello’s and Kafka’s World of Animals

The principal metaphor of life concerning animals’ perception by humanity can be characterized as feeding unwanted dogs’ bodies into incinerators; the book Elizabeth Costello presents this expression through humanism and rationalism concepts. It is necessary to underline the fact that the work under analysis put all animals in moral hierarchy, stressing the idea that all people used to believe in their greater right to life than animals.

Cruelty to animals is disclosed as the grave sin of human life; the author underlines that meet-eating humans are considered to be true conspirators in stupefying magnitude crime taking place in factories, slaughterhouses, farms and many laboratories throughout the world. Costello’s literary achievements have been brightly illustrated on the basis of lectures aimed at philosophical presentation of animals. According to her theory, every animal is a kind of embodied soul characterizing that all people are animals themselves. The most horror fact is aimed at underlining ‘killers’ refusal to think themselves into the place of victims’ (Coetzee, 2004). It means that people never persecute animals imagining themselves into their own lives. It is necessary to underline the fact that the author grabs special attention to spiritual presentation of animals’ rights; such concepts as ‘western cultural arrogance’ of movements aimed at animals rights protection, sentimental utopianism and various philosophical shortcomings as equality claims between human understanding and animals. It is interesting to note that Costello tried not to share personal experiences of her relations with personal animals because of strong academic taboo; nevertheless, her ideas and thoughts are grounded and exemplified through a number of cultural traditions and customs. The fiction of modernity centralizes the image and symbols of animals underlining important philosophical concepts of human thinking.

One of the lectures section was aimed at comparative analysis of Holocaust and meet industry; Costello’s philosophical presentation appeared to be ‘ill argued’ though it was logically connected with high cultural and scientific practice. The author stressed that usual life of most people includes sentimental engagements with some animals filled with potential and intensity for unconventional effects. It was found out that emotional proximity between animals and humans is considered to be the central generator of sentiment and sympathy. Costello strived to demonstrate a row of social prohibitions concerning nurturing behavior covering increased awareness of pleasures, perceptions and sufferings related to the animals.

Coetzee described Costello’s observations of various experiments and tests aimed at identification of animals’ intelligence. The baboon expert, Barbara Smuts, included in Coetzee’s lectures was concerned as to the consciousness of animals; she used to live in the animals’ world being surrounded by them in usual life. She was concerned as to the consciousness of the animals accompanying her in everyday life. Philosophical concept in the identification of the animals’ role for humanity was predominantly based on the principle of creatures’ perception in the cultures of different nations (Coetzee, p. 145).

Elizabeth Costello used to demonstrate the life of animals through such aspects as breeding and killing. She was certainly distraught by the reality she lived in. The presentation of the vegetarian mean of life was considered to be centralized in the author’s perception; Costello was considerably shattered by the development of the meat industry, people’s callow inability to respect and recognize animals’ lives. She stressed her shock from imbecile experiments humans conduct on animals; Costello was astonished and irritated with the established arrogant philosophies embodying animals as the part of human feeding, experiments and entertaining. It is necessary to underline the fact that Coetzee managed to underline Costello’s worrying concerning social indifference in their attitude towards the world of animals. It is interesting to stress that English philosophy covering the life of animals reflects analytical descriptions of individuals; it means that animals are treated on the basis of such concepts as death, suffering, etc., rather than species in the whole. Costello underlined the most frequent description of ‘breeding animals for manufacturing of food’, which can hardly characterize modern link between the world of human beings and animals from the positive aspect.

Special attention was paid to genetic engineering, as this field is considered to play a significant role within every society. Genetically altered mice are used in order to test new remedies in the sphere of medicine; this aspect limits the right of animals considerably. It is necessary to underline the fact that our experiments lead to the creation of real monsters brought into life with our hands. Thus, thousands of monstrous turkeys and mice are ‘produced’ in order to get sick and die in near future. Nowadays people can hardly think about the feelings and thoughts of animals surrounding us; such ignorance is in the process of strengthening from generation to generation and can result in complete destruction of cultural harmony in any society.

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Franz Kafka devoted his works to the embodiment of animals in the work Metamorphosis; he reflected the way of human life through their turning into various creatures. Transformations of people into animals can be perceived as the true link between the two worlds of living beings: people and animals. It is necessary to underline the fact that the use of animals can be perceived through their detachment; it is the breakage of stereotypes in the society as to distant link between the features of humans and creatures.

Kafka’s Metamorphosis investigates the transformation of the protagonist into a bug underlining the suffering of the person living the life of non-human creatures. The author strived to outline the differences in perception produced by people and animals through close interference of their life. Living in the family, a transformed person felt prejudices and hate; that is the way modern people treat the world of animals. Kafka’s implementation was reflected through parallel drawing between human existence and dependence on animals (Kafka, 1996).

Deep analysis of this work can reflect the idea, that Kafka illustrated a kind of death of the Human World, where all the people live under the pressure of animals’ style of life and behavior. The work is rather symbolic and characterizes the animals as a separate power. All the metamorphoses are described as the part of conjunction referred to as deterritorialization where the human beings serve as the animals. (Deleuze, p. 111)

More about The Metamorphosis

The analysis of two different stories Metamorphosis by Kafka and Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee presents two various visions of the world of animals. It is necessary to underline the fact that Costello was the real protector of creatures defending spiritual side of their rights. She used to demonstrate the link between human beings and animals; her storyline represents animals through human perception, though recent changes in cultural and traditional regulations resulted in harm to the world of animals. Constant experiments and testing conducted in the period of modernization make animals be the part of artificial activities of human beings. Comparing Costello’s interpretation of animals with Kafka’s Metamorphosis, it is necessary to underline the fact that Kafka produced allegorical philosophy of animals’ place in modern world. Transformations into creatures symbolize spiritual dependence between animals and people; the author managed to illustrate how two worlds of living beings can be connected with each other.

Conclusion

Philosophical and theoretical interpretation of animals in literature was demonstrated from different aspects, as it was proved on the example of Costello and Kafka who presented them on the basis of personal experience. It is necessary to underline the fact that the modern world of humanity deprived animals of their rights perceiving them predominantly as the integral part of meat industry development. The analysis of two works disclosed how wild and domestic animals are perceived and treated in modern society.

In conclusion, it is necessary to underline the fact that Costello and Kafka embodied the animals in their works for the purpose of stressing the significance of nature and surrounding creatures. Modern ignorance on the part of generation was sharpened considerably because of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the key animals’ philosophy. The work appeared to be the underline of principle tasks of modern society on our way to harmony with the nature and improved treatment of animals through human necessity to protect them from internal interference.

References

  1. Coetzee, J.M. Elizabeth Costello. Penguin (Non-Classics). 2004.
  2. Deleuze, G. Kafka: toward a minor literature. University of Minnesota Press. 1986.
  3. Kafka, F. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Dover Publications, 1996.
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IvyPanda. (2022) 'Putting Animals in Literature: Costello and Kafka'. 31 August.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "Putting Animals in Literature: Costello and Kafka." August 31, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/putting-animals-in-literature-costello-and-kafka/.

1. IvyPanda. "Putting Animals in Literature: Costello and Kafka." August 31, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/putting-animals-in-literature-costello-and-kafka/.


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IvyPanda. "Putting Animals in Literature: Costello and Kafka." August 31, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/putting-animals-in-literature-costello-and-kafka/.

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