Ethical Encounters with Animal Others in Travel Writing

Abstract

While many accounts of the role of ethics in narrative representations of travel emphasize the role of race, class, and gender in carving out images of others (countries, peoples, nations), hitherto scant attention has been paid to the role of animals in travel writing. Historically, travel writingfollowing the conventions of colonial discourse-has populated unknown lands not only with threatening humans but with monstrous animals such as the cynocephali and human-faced sheep.1 With the advancement of practices such as game hunting in Africa and India, the animal has been objectifi ed, silenced, and transformed into a marginal fi gure in travel writing and other literary texts. However, as this chapter will show, recent travel writing reveals a di erent attitude towards animals. This trend stems from the discourses of conservationism and ethics arguing for a renewed relationship with the environment and animals.