Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T23:40:58.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Canetti's Final Frontier: The Animal

from Philosophy and Social Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2017

Dagmar C. G. Lorenz
Affiliation:
Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Irene Stocksiecker Di Maio
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of German at Louisiana State University and A & M College
William Collins Donahue
Affiliation:
Duke University
Anne Fuchs
Affiliation:
Professor of modern German literature and culture at University College Dublin.
Helga W. Kraft
Affiliation:
Professor and Head of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Wolfgang Mieder
Affiliation:
University of Vermont, Department of German and Russian
Harriet Murphy
Affiliation:
Department of German Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, England
Johannes Pankau
Affiliation:
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Julian Preece
Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Ritchie Robertson
Affiliation:
Professor of German and a Fellow of St. John's College at the University of Oxford.
Sigurd Paul Scheichl
Affiliation:
University Innsbruck
Dagmar C.G. Lorenz
Affiliation:
Dagmar C. G. Lorenz is Professor of German at the University of Illinois, Chicago
Get access

Summary

Der Morgen, so lustig, als wäre er für immer angebrochen.

Tiere auf allen Seiten

The statements about animals in Elias Canetti's works reveal the scope and direction of the author's thought as few other topics do. In her anthology Elias Canetti über Tiere (2002), Brigitte Kronauer writes that Canetti's relationship to animals is indicative of the much-debated fascination with and concern about power that permeated all phases of his career as a writer and critic. Rather than considering Canetti the “ruthless tyrant who paradoxically criticizes the exertion of power” as some critics have characterized him, Kronauer emphasizes his desire for equality among all living beings:

Etwa unter der empörten Zurückweisung einer absoluten Sonderstellung des Menschen gegenüber dem Tier den generellen Ekel des Autors vor Machtanmaßung; sein Interesse für die Dynamik von Mengen und Massen bei der Darstellung großer Tierherden; seine Weigerung, sich trotz des unwiderleglichen Augenscheins mit dem Faktum des Todes abzufinden, also im Schlachthaus das Schlachten nicht zu akzeptieren, nicht zu glauben, daß etwas (hier die erschlagenen Schlangen im Sack) “ganz tot sein könnte.”

Scattered throughout Canetti's work, observations about animals and the relationship between humans and animals seem strangely at odds with the human-centeredness of the dominant philosophies and ideological programs of his era such as Marxism, fascism, existentialism, and humanism. In fact, there is a development in Canetti's thoughts on animals that leads from his earlier, mostly abstract configuration of the concepts “man and animal” as myth or metaphor to a more literal understanding of animals and to a real concern for their well-being in a world increasingly dominated and devastated by humans. “Die Laute der Wale. Im Grunde empfinde ich Scham, diese friedlichen Laute von Geschöpfen zu hören, die sich gegen uns nicht zur Wehr setzen können,” he wrote in 1992 (Tiere, 98). Such statements transcend the anthropocentric patterns of the post-Enlightenment and place Canetti into the context of post-humanist, postmodern movements concerned with ecological issues and animal rights. For example, in a statement made in 1985, Canetti expressed his refusal to take part in the domestication of nonhuman animals, which would result in making them subservient to him: “Kein Tier hat ihn erkannt. Er war keinem Tier geheuer. Er weigerte sich, ein Tier zum Diener zu nehmen” (Aufz. 1942–85, 530).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×