What can be said/delineated about authenticity or cultural voice when it comes to indigenous communities? What exactly is it about the folktale especially, when expressed with that authentic voice, that seems to makes that genre more palpable? We can see…

I’m interested in the similarities and differences between stories about non-human animals (or other than human people, as Harde puts it) and those that appear as both animal and human. Harde discusses in the section on bears “That the bear…

The story from the Trickster anthology that stuck with me the most was the one of the deadly beaver, which essentially baits the men by offering them a piece of its own flesh. Because the beaver is offering the meat…

What do we think of the term “other-than-human person” versus “non-human animal” versus “animal-persons”? What does it do to a book or to a story when the hunting or consumption of animals is portrayed? Is there an honest way to…

On page 36, Derrida writes, “More precisely, of sexual differences, that is to say, what for the most part is kept under wraps in almost all of the grand philosophical-type treatises on the animality of the animal. This opening, on…

How the difference in between the word ‘animal’ and ‘animals’ differ from ‘human’ and ‘humans’ for Derrida?

Two lines that stood out to me are: On the one hand, casting doubt on responsibility, on decision, on one’s own being-ethical, seems to me to be—and is perhaps what should forever remain—the unrescindable essence of ethics, decision, and responsibility…

Questions: Why did White have a literate spider save Wilbur rather than allowing Wilbur to be literate, the better to save himself? It ensures that what wins Wilbur his freedom is a lie (there’s nothing special about Wilbur), though, of…

 How should we justify Charlotte’s death? Is leaving her children alone and dying for saving Wilbur friendship and loyalty? In other words, is one’s friend more important than one’s children?  If we say the moral of the story include the…

-I thought that Charlotte’s Web was going to delve deeper into exploring the human-animal relationship, but Fern (who as a character remains flat and undeveloped) fades out of the story after the first few chapters. Why does Fern—the only human…