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The Animals In That Country
''The Animals in That Country'' is a 1968 poetry collection written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It is her fifth volume of poetry. Like other works by Atwood, The Animals in That Country explores themes relating to human behaviour and celebration of the natural world, with some of the poems expressing an ecocentric perspective and using the difference between the animals of the Old World and the New World to scrutinize issues like power politics, feminism and human existence. Title The title of the volume makes a distinction between "that country" and "this country" as a commentary on the differences between Europe and the New World. The animals in "that country" are described as having "the faces of people" and their deaths being romanticized as coming about as part of ceremonial or legendary scenarios, such as fox hunts or bull fights Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, and two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Atwood has won numerous awards and honors for her writing, including two Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Governor General's Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, Princess of Asturias Awards, and the National Book Critics and PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Awards. A number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Atwood's works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth, the power of language, climate change, and "power politics". Many of her poems are inspired by myths and fairy tales which interested her from a very earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecocentrism
Ecocentrism (; from Greek: οἶκος ''oikos'', "house" and κέντρον ''kentron'', "center") is a term used by environmental philosophers and ecologists to denote a nature-centered, as opposed to human-centered (i.e. anthropocentric), system of values. The justification for ecocentrism usually consists in an ontological belief and subsequent ethical claim. The ontological belief denies that there are any existential divisions between human and non-human nature sufficient to claim that humans are either (a) the sole bearers of intrinsic value or (b) possess greater intrinsic value than non-human nature. Thus the subsequent ethical claim is for an equality of intrinsic value across human and non-human nature, or biospherical egalitarianism. Quotes According to Stan Rowe: and: Origin of term The ecocentric ethic was conceived by Aldo Leopold and recognizes that all species, including humans, are the product of a long evolutionary process and are inter-related in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by their inhabitants as comprising the entire world, with the "New World", a term for the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas. Etymology In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. These regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of ''Americus'', the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name ''America'' first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16c, a name of the western hemisphere, often in the plural ''Americas'' and more or less synonymous with ''the New World''. Since the 18c, a name of the United States of America. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..." The term gained prominence in the early 16th century, during Europe's Age of Discovery, shortly after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci concluded that America (now often called ''th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Power Politics
Power politics is a theory in international relations which contends that distributions of power and national interests, or changes to those distributions, are fundamental causes of war and of system stability. The concept of power politics provides a way of understanding systems of international relations: in this view, states compete for the world's limited resources, and it is to an individual state's advantage to be manifestly able to harm others. Power politics prioritizes national self-interest over the interests of other nations or the international community, and thus may include threatening one another with military, economic, or political aggression to protect one nation's own interest. Techniques of power politics include: * Deterrence theory, in which a weaker state deters attack by bolstering its defensive capabilities enough to render attacking infeasible * Conspicuous weapons development (including nuclear development) * Pre-emptive strikes * Blackmail * The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male point of view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women. Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration and to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox Hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of hounds"), follow the hounds on foot or on horseback. In Australia, the term also refers to the hunting of foxes with firearms, similar to deer hunting. Fox hunting with hounds, as a formalised activity, originated in England in the sixteenth century, in a form very similar to that practised until February 2005, when a law banning the activity in England and Wales came into force. A ban on hunting in Scotland had been passed in 2002, but it continues to be within the law in Northern Ireland and several other areas, including Australia, Canada, France, the Republic of Ireland and the United States. The sport is controversial, particularly in the United Kingdom. Proponents of fox hunting view it as an important part of rural culture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms which involve dancing around or leaping over a cow or bull or attempting to grasp an object tied to the animal's horns. The best-known form of bullfighting is Spanish-style bullfighting, practiced in Spain, Portugal, Southern France, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Peru. The Spanish Fighting Bull is bred for its aggression and physique, and is raised free-range with little human contact. The practice of bullfighting is controversial because of a range of concerns including animal welfare, funding, and religion. While some forms are considered a blood sport, in some countries, for example Spain, it is defined as an art form or cultural event, and local regulations define it as a cultural event or heritage. Bullfighting is ill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roadkill
Roadkill is an animal or animals that have been struck and killed by drivers of motor vehicles on highways. Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) have increasingly been the topic of academic research to understand the causes, and how it can be mitigated. History Essentially non-existent before the advent of mechanized transport, roadkill is associated with increasing automobile speed in the early 20th century. Naturalist Joseph Grinnell noted in 1920 that "this oadkillis a relatively new source of fatality; and if one were to estimate the entire mileage of such roads in the state alifornia the mortality must mount into the hundreds and perhaps thousands every 24 hours." In Europe and North America, deer are the animal most likely to cause vehicle damage. In Australia, specific actions taken to protect against the variety of animals that can damage vehicles – such as bullbars (usually known in Australia as 'roo bars', in reference to kangaroos) – indicate the Australian ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Animals In That Country (novel)
''The Animals in That Country'' is a 2020 novel by Laura Jean McKay, published by Scribe. The novel won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2020), Arthur C. Clarke Award (2021), Victorian Prize for Literature (2021), and Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction (2021). In the novel, "A pandemic enables animals and humans to communicate," resulting "in a fierce and funny exploration of other consciousnesses and the limits of language." Background ''The Animals in That Country'' was inspired by McKay's experiences of the chikungunya virus caught at a writer's festival in Bali in 2013. She had started working on the novel at that time; its eventual release at the start of COVID-19 pandemic was a coincidence. McKay said of her experiences recording the audiobook in March 2020:I had spent years concocting the most impossible virus, only to witness a disease beyond my imagination infecting, killing and driving the real world towards global isolation. It was a relie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura Jean McKay
Laura Jean McKay (born 1978) is an Australian author and creative writing lecturer. In 2021 she won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel '' The Animals in That Country''. Life and career McKay was born in Orbost, Australia, in 1978. She grew up on a horse farm in Sale, in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. She worked at international aid organisations in Cambodia after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and subsequently wrote ''Holiday in Cambodia'' while completing an MA in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. She completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne, where she wrote ''The Animals in that Country''. Since June 2019 McKay has been a lecturer in creative writing at Massey University in New Zealand. She has said that Janet Frame is one of her writing influences: "I still turn to Frame when I've forgotten how to flip the world over and look at it from a new perspective". ''H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
