Imagining Otherness: The Political Novel and Animal Rights

Abstract

Scheingold's The Politics of Rights and The Political Novel while having different objects of study at the center of their analyses, both concern themselves with the difficulties in producing meaningful social change on a late modern political terrain. His critiques of rights-claiming are echoed in debates over the practical and philosophical difficulties incorporating animals into contemporary legal regimes. This chapter considers insights from Scheingold's two texts arguing that his insights into the legal imaginary in the latter text anticipates the critique of animal rights while his emphasis on the fictional imaginary in the former text can also be found in contemporary texts that suggest animals can help us rethink political agency.

Citation

Rasmussen, C.E. (2012), "Imagining Otherness: The Political Novel and Animal Rights", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Special Issue: The Legacy of Stuart Scheingold (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 59), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 155-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2012)0000059011