Challenging the Boundaries between Humanity and Animality: Becoming(s) in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Echoes of the Fall Trilogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study undertakes a close reading of the British science fiction writer Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Echoes of the Fall trilogy, which comprises three novels–The Tiger and the Wolf (2016), The Bear and the Serpent (2017) and The Hyena and the Hawk (2018)–to demonstrate how acknowledging the power of ‘becoming’ from an animal-centric discursive framework paves the way for a dynamic integration of a chastened humanity and a newly empowered animality. The goal is to show how Tchaikovsky’s trilogy blurs the boundaries between animalkind and humankind such that they are no longer two disparate and distinct entities. The author adopts Deleuze’s and Guattari’s paradigm of “becoming-animal” as his primary philosophical framework, along with various secondary theoretical and philosophical insights to explore agency, transformation, becoming, alterity and conviviality in Tchaikovsky’s works and their contribution to the rapidly expanding discourse on animality. The novels portray the human form assuming paramount significance during tender moments when feelings, thoughts, emotions and sentiments are felt, relieved and shared while, for more challenging events such as facing adverse natural conditions, dangerous enemies and monstrous battles, it is the animal or beastly form that proves most advantageous.