Through non-human animals, humans have come to understand ways of living in this world and simultaneously animals have provided the resources for humans to claim this living. But through this progression and time humans have become detached from the origin of the resources. By this separation it becomes possible for humans to turn a blind eye to cruelty and the environmental impact that the claim to non-human animals convey. With the aim is to evoke reflection on the human ruling of the non-human animals, this project aims to design objects and furniture that are uncanny, familiar and ordinary but at the same time off-putting and maybe strange. By examining phycology and consumer culture theory, seek to find habits in the Swedish everyday life which are intimate and recognizable such as fredagsmys, a placeholder for consumption and hierarchies. Then through the analyse of critical animal studies, design objects and furniture that challenge these habits and positions of consumption and hierarchy.

When making my work I constantly reflect on past mythologies, images, and objects. These served people as a way to make sense of and understand the dynamics of the world around them. As we continue to alter and shape the world into one designed for exclusively human benefit, we need new models that reveal the dynamics of our relationship to the world around us. This is what artists have been doing for centuries, and I specifically look to those using animals and animal imagery in their work to further mythologize our contemporary understanding of the human-other animal relationship. My body of work utilizes methods of drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and video to create contemporary icons, objects, and rituals. Icons are re-appropriated, objects are redefined, and rituals are reinterpreted in my work in a way that becomes relevant again for a contemporary audience. Animal imagery is used in a way that explores current trends in genetics, industry, consumerism, and power to reveal this contemporary mythology. These are certainly informed by the prehistoric understanding of this relationship as it is in jarring contrast to our notions today. This juxtaposition serves to illuminate how this relationship has been distorted in this historically recent time while aiming to enlighten us to the power of the other, the thing-ness or vitality of the animal and re-calibrate contemporary notions in order to achieve reconciliation with a natural order of things.

“An Examination of the Death and Dying of Companion Animals” explores the human-animal relationship as enacted in the home by becoming interspecies families. In particular, these relationships are considered when companion animals are dying and in need of special care and attention. This work provides historical and cultural context for how humans attend to animals in death and dying through the history of pet keeping and a complex literature review to explore the intersections of death and dying and religion, and human-animal studies. Specifically, models for companion animal end-of-life care replicate those services for humans by providing palliative care and a myriad of other treatments to attend to the suffering of aging and terminal pets. In addition to examining the creation of companion animal hospice and how it has quickly grown since the early 2000s, this work also confronts questions of euthanasia as a burdensome decision-making process. The decision to euthanize a loved one is fraught with ambiguity, uncertainty, and, at times, guilt. These experiences are idiosyncratic and by creating a discourse and popular platform through which to share these instances of death and dying, this project contributes to the newly established death positivity movement in drawing attention to caring for dead bodies in the home. This project ends by exploring after-death-care for companion animals. Burial and cremation are still, for the most part, how human families dispose of companion animal bodies. In addition to these more traditional forms of disposition, companion humans are also starting to preserve their companion animal bodies through taxidermy and freeze-drying. Though still considered grotesque by many companion humans, companion animal body preservation is just one example of new and reimagined mourning rituals. It is through these rituals and the recognition of this particular grief that the human-animal relationship in the home is seen in a new, complicated, ambiguous and intimate light. / Religion

Despite the characteristic cross-disciplinarity of animal studies, interactions between literary and scientific researchers have been negligible. In response, this project develops a framework of practical zoocriticism, an interdisciplinary lens which synthesizes methodologies from science, animal advocacy, and literature. A primary focus of this model is the complex relationship between literary representations of animals, scientific studies of animal cognition, and practical and theoretical work advocating animal protection. This thesis proposes that the Canadian wild animal stories of Ernest Thompson Seton and Charles G.D. Roberts operate at an intersection of these three factors. Their potential for facilitating reciprocal communication has not been recognized, however, due to their damaged representation within Canadian literature as a consequence of the Nature Fakers controversy. By re-contextualizing and re-evaluating these texts this project illuminates the unique contributions made by these authors. It also offers new evidence of the intersecting discourses and ideologies that stimulated the controversy. Re-defining the genre has enabled this project to uncover a selection of twentieth-century Canadian texts that perpetuate its core aims and characteristics. This project suggests that after the Nature Fakers controversy, the wild animal story diverged into two new forms: ‘realistic’ and ‘speculative.’ By placing the wild animal story in relation to a broader canon of Canadian literature, this thesis identifies three distinct modes of animal representation. These methods of relating to literary animals in the Canadian context are the fantasy of knowing the animal, the failure of knowing the animal, and the acceptance of not-knowing the animal. This novel characterization of Canadian literature is a product of the diverse, interdisciplinary approaches offered by the practical zoocriticism framework.

The dissertation connects areas of critical-animal studies and feminist studies over the question of picturing bodies of animals and women including visual violence. In particular it addresses the use of mentioned picturing methods by an animal rights movement. I understand women and animals to be marginalised groups in patriarchal society on which is represented the power of hegemonic masculinity by denigrating, violent and sexual representation, even though each group has its specifics. The method of representation serves as means of confirmation and embedding of hegemonic masculinity, anthropocentric system built on binary oppositions man/woman, human/animal, and with them related discourse of difference. The aim of the dissertation is to point out common characteristics of denigrating representation including violence (with sexual meaning) on animals and women who are reduced to objects, on which visualisation of violence is socially accepted. The initial point comes from feminist theories of Carol J. Adams and her concept of absent referent. Further it works with concept of intersectionality and fluid identity according to Rosi Braidotti, which enables consideration of assigning a claim of personal identity also to animals. From the methodological position, the dissertation is based on...

This Diploma Thesis focuses on the issue of reproduction of animals and the non- profit organisations and subjects working in this field. The cat and dog reproduction is a primary cause of their overpopulation in the Czech Republic which becomes an ever- increasing issue as the abandoned animal shelter network fails to provide enough capacity for local demand. The thesis is focused on the activities of such organisations and tools they use for mobilising the necessary resources as well as the issue of animal reproduction itself. The theory basis is in the general theory of resource mobilisation supported with the explanation of the civil initiatives dedicated to this phenomenon as well as the overview of the phenomenon of the animal reproduction as well. The thesis is composed of five qualitative interviews with organisations or movements that are dedicated to effective reduction of animal reproduction. The empiric part of the thesis presents selected organisations and then analyses the collected data. The financial and human resources are mostly utilised by organisations which physically treat animals and the majority of the funds is consumed by providing care for them. On the other hand, organisations dedicated to enlightenment and education are able to function as self-funded and self-organised...

In this biographical study of the Finno-Swedish author Nanny Hammarström (1870 - 1953), a forgotten authorship is presented. Hammarström's work is placed in a literary and cultural context with the help of a comprehensive review of how the authorship is described in overview works on literature, reviews, and articles. The study concludes with an analysis of the reception regarding some of Hammarström's works with anthropomorphic (zoomanic) subjects as protagonists. / I denna biografiska studie över den finlandssvenska författaren Nanny Hammarström (1870 – 1953) presenteras ett bortglömt författarskap. Hammarströms böcker placeras i litterär och kulturell kontext med en omfattande genomgång av hur författarskapet behandlas i litterära översiktsverk, recensioner och tidningsartiklar. Studien avslutas med en analys av receptionen gällande några av Hammarströms verk med antropomorfa (zoomana) subjekt som protagonister. / <p>Slutgiltigt godkännandedatum: 2023-06-01</p>

What does it mean to take Animals, Plants, and Machines seriously when engaging in hybrid natures such as bioart, plant-art, taxidermy art and cyborgs in contemporary art?  Traditionally within art history the focus has been on human culture as the fundamental underpinning for cultural behaviour and productions, consequently rendering animal and plant histories invisible from the analysis of artworks. In this thesis I attend to the bodies of animals, plants, and machines put in the context of the zooësis (places/contact zones) of these bodies as biopolitical aesthetics (aesthetic bodies/objects) in contemporary art. Followingly, also attending to the histories of animals, plants, and machines in human societies and culture.  Situated within the interdisciplinary field of Human-Nonhuman-Animal Studies, or Anthrozoology, the aim in this thesis is to examine the meaning of animals, plants, and machines beyond representation, symbolism and mythology in contemporary art. In other words, this thesis analyses the representations of animal, plant, and cyborg bodies as actant aesthetic (organic and mechanical) objects, in art, literature, and media. Particular focus is payed to the hybrid natures founded in the taxidermy art of Berlinde De Bruyckere; in the bioart and transgenic plant-art of Špela Petrič; in the hybrid hyperrealist sculptures and bioethics of Patricia Piccinini; and in the hybrid artifacts, or “technoanimalism” of Tove Kjellmark.

Klára Černá: Man and his Dog, Dog and its Man Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology Theses, 76 pages, 2013 Work, focused on the role of dog in human relationships. The first part provides an introduction to the problem and its historical, ethological, cultural a biopsychological consequences to human beings. The second part - research, used grounded theory. Focused is on young adults in Prague. The aim is to reveal the basic forms of implications of cohabitation with dog on interpersonal relationships. Keywords Human-animal studie; dog; grouded theory; interpersonal relationships; animal and society

L’animal comme personnage et narrateur a été une figure présente depuis toujours dans la mythologie, les fables et l’épique. Au XXème siècle, l’incertitude en face des idéologies légitimatrices et l’émergence de nouvelles théories qui donnaient la parole aux opprimés, a servi pour revigorer la voix de l’animal. Divers genres littéraires et plusieurs écrivains ont utilisé cette voix. Notre recherche a comme but l’analyse de cette voix originelle dans les œuvres des écrivains hispano-américains de la deuxième moitié du XXème siècle. Pour y arriver, nous proposons l’identification d’un dessin général capable de répondre aux questions suivantes: pourquoi et comment l’animal participe dans la littérature. Notre étude est divisée en trois parties qui correspondent au dessin déjà mentionné. La première et la deuxième partie font l’analyse de la voix satirique. La différence entre les deux voix se trouve dans la cible de la satire. Pendant que la première critique et ridiculise les institutions et idéologies humaines, la deuxième dénonce la relation de pouvoir entre l’humain et l’animal. Finalement, nous faisons la recherche d’une voix narrative qui se concentre dans la psychologie, le monde et l’anecdote du même animal. Cette recherche propose de répondre à quelques questions qui motivent la participation de l’animal dans la littérature hispano-américaine du XXème siècle, et la façon dont cette participation se réalise. Nous espérons ainsi ouvrir le chemin par où la critique hispano-américaine pourra s’intégrer à l’étude d’un des personnages et un des narrateurs les plus intéressants : l’animal. / The animal character and the animal narrator have always played an important role, either in mythology, fables and the epic. In the late twentieth century, the incertitude regarding the metanarratives and the subsequent creation of theories that value the voices that were before silenced, gave the animal voice a new strength. The animal has increasingly been used in different genres and by several authors. Our research intends to analyze this voice in the work of Hispano-American authors from the second half of the XX century. In order to dos this effectively, we have searched for patterns that will help us understand the why and the how of animal literature. Our study is divided in three parts, based on the patterns we have discovered in the texts. The first and second part of this study analyzes the satirical voice. The difference between each voice has to do with the aim of their satire. While the first one criticizes and ridicules human’s ideologies and institutions, the second one questions the relationship of power established between humans and animals. In the third part, we inquire on a voice that focuses itself on the psychology, the world and the adventures of the animal.This study intends to clarify some of the reasons why the animal is used in the XX century Hispano-American literature, and described the manner in which this happens. We hope to create awareness in the Spanish academy about one of the most interesting characters and narrators: the animal. / El animal como personaje y narrador ha estado siempre presente,ya sea en los mitos, las fábulas y la épica. En el siglo XX, laincertidumbre ante los discursos legitimadores y el surgimiento denuevas teorías que privilegian la voz de los anteriormentesilenciados, sirvió para dar nueva fuerza al animal. Éste ha sidousado en diversos géneros y por una gran variedad de autores.Nuestro trabajo tiene como objetivo el análisis de esta voz, en laobra de los autores hispanoamericanos de la segunda mitad delsiglo XX. Para ello, proponemos la identificación de patrones, quenos ayuden a entender el porqué y el cómo del animal en laliteratura. El estudio se divide en tres partes, que corresponden alos patrones encontrados en los textos. La primera y la segundaparte analizan la voz satírica. La diferencia entre ambas vocesradica en el blanco de la sátira. Mientras la primera censura yridiculiza las instituciones e ideologías humanas, la segunda hacelo propio con la relación de poder entre el humano y el animal. Enla tercera parte, nos abocamos al estudio de una voz se enfoca en lapsicología, el mundo y las aventuras del propio animal.Este trabajo propone aclarar algunos motivos por los cuales elanimal es usado en la literatura del siglo XX hispanoamericana, ydescribir las maneras en que esto sucede. Con ello, esperamostambién abrir el camino para que la academia hispanoamericana seintegre también al estudio de uno de los personajes y narradoresmás interesantes: el animal.