This lecture provided an introduction to multispecies ethnography, a genre of writing and research method emerged at the beginning of the twenty-first century, whose main focus is the investigation of other-than-human life forms in their interaction with human society. Professor Desmond shared a research work which stands at the intersection of multispecies ethnography and literary studies. In particular, she explored the role of poetry as multispecies ethnography, namely a cultural activity of trans-species translation for the articulation of human/non-human relationships beyond anthropocentrism. To this end, Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘The Fish’ (1946), Anne Phillips’ ‘Two Cows’ (2018), Emily Dickinson’s ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ (1891) and Linda Hogan’s ‘Song for the Turtles in the Gulf’ (2014) were presented as case studies.
12 novembre 2022