CLST 011. First-Year Seminar: Talking Animals

Talking animals appear in diverse storytelling traditions in virtually all periods of recorded history. Often dismissed as nothing more than a playful device of children's literature, the granting of speech to voiceless animals is in fact a complex and potentially transgressive modification of the human-animal binary. What is it about talking animals that has proven so appealing to storytellers in such different cultural and historical contexts? Does the overt anthropomorphism of such representations preclude the possibility of serious ethical concern for real animals? This first-year seminar surveys the history and meanings of talking animals in ancient and modern storytelling traditions, from Aesop's fables to Disney films, from the Panchatantra to the graphic novels of Art Spiegelman. And we will go to the zoo.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Classics
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/classics

Access the class schedule to search for sections.

Close Window