Siriusly Concerned: Animal Non-Belongingness in a Dichotomized Environment

Jesús Fernández Caro

doi:10.14198/PANGEAS.18848

Autores/as

Jesús Fernández Caro Universidad de Cádiz, España https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6494-1473

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/PANGEAS.18848

Palabras clave:

Estudios de animales, Posmodernismo, Ecocrítica, Ciencia ficción, Stapledon

Resumen

El presente artículo realiza un acercamiento a Sirius (1944), de Olaf Stapledon, desde una perspectiva que unifica estudios de animales en literatura y ecocrítica. El personaje protagonista de esta novela de ciencia ficción es un perro modificado genéticamente que se encuentra en una incómoda posición entre el mundo humano y animal, siendo así incapaz de pertenecer ni a espacios urbanos ni naturales. Se sostiene que esta obra de ficción desarrolla un ejercicio de ruptura de fronteras entre los binarios humano-animal, ciudad-naturaleza y divino-mundano, ofreciendo a cambio alternativas menos conflictivas. Cada uno de estos binarios se explora a lo largo de tres viajes que permiten al personaje protagonista reflexionar acerca de su especie tan peculiar. Sirius declara que solo la empatía puede ayudar para tal cometido; los animales, sean humanos o no, podrían entonces entender diferencias biológicas, culturales y espirituales como rasgos positivos de una experiencia común. Este trabajo analiza los tres viajes de Sirius para observar (1) las reflexiones del perro acerca del ser humano en su estancia en Londres, (2) los devenires animales que hacen que Sirius sea lobo, perro y ser humano a la vez en un entorno no urbano y (3) la música como la herramienta idónea para que un individuo articule su espiritualidad, basada en una reconexión con una biodiversidad casi perdida.

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