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From subversive cats to silent cows. Hidden stories of nonhuman animals in Lucas Rijneveld’s 'De avond is ongemak'

Fraipont, Barbara
(2024) 15th Biennial ALCS Conference: UN/KNOWN. Correcting & (re)Collecting Texts, Stories, Languages, Time — Location: Sheffield (2024.July.7AD)

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Abstract
In this paper, starting from questions about the role of cats in 17th century Dutch domestic and everyday ‘stillevens’ (an aspect that has received little attention in art history) as well as ethical and philosophical reflections about animals, I would like to draw attention to the role of animals in Lucas Rijneveld’s De avond is ongemak (The Discomfort of Evening, 2018). This modern novel presents a human-centered plot about Dutch rural life, homeliness, religion, identity, and loss. The literary description of everyday farm life features multiple animals such as cows, chickens, frogs, toads, etc. Yet because of the human I-centered narration, these other living beings might easily be overlooked by a reader who would not explicitly focus on them. By considering and questioning the representations and functions of the animals in this novel, this paper aims to unravel the implicit impact of the animals on the human protagonists. The task of this zoopoetic reading, then, is to show how the language of Rijneveld’s novel might unsettle the mere decorative or object function of animals and, thus, anthropocentric logic. The focus on hitherto hidden and unknown possible stories of animal others in Rijneveld’s novel also calls for an alternative ecology of attention to more than human worlds and care of other beings.
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  • Institution iconUCLouvainSSH/IRIS-L/PROS - Centre Prospéro - Langage, image et connaissance

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Fraipont, B. (2024). From subversive cats to silent cows. Hidden stories of nonhuman animals in Lucas Rijneveld’s ‘De avond is ongemak’. 15th Biennial ALCS Conference: UN/KNOWN. Correcting & (re)Collecting Texts, Stories, Languages, Time, Sheffield. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/260069