Animals and the Question of Literature

This essay considers the social function of literature in the light of the current debate on animal rights. It argues that not only is this debate conducted in the realm of literary texts, it is a debate that raises important questions about the value and uses of fiction. While this question is arguably as old as literature itself, and while there can obviously be no single answer, the debates and definitions it engenders at any given moment may be taken as symptomatic of a society's ethical and political condition. One particularly virulent issue today seems to be that of human-animal relations, at least judging by the number of novels and essayistic works published recently that deal with this topic.