Henning Howlid Wærp. Dyr og mennesker i norsk litteratur.

Over the past few decades, the interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies, also known as animal studies, has become increasingly popular, evidenced by the growing number of journals and anthologies dedicated to this topic.With Dyr og mennesker i norsk litteratur [Animals and People in Norwegian Literature], Henning Howlid Waerp provides a valuable contribution to the field, using a variety of literary lenses and frameworks to examine the relationships between humans and animals in selected Norwegian fictional and non-fictional prose narratives, from the end of the nineteenth century up until today.While most chapters focus on novels, Waerp also devotes individual chapters to short stories, essays, and an exploration narrative.Wild animals, including mammals, insects, and birds, receive considerable attention, as do pets, and farm animals also appear.In his prologue, Waerp points out how he had to set boundaries, both in terms of genre and the types of human-animal relationships highlighted.In chapter one, which serves as an introduction, Waerp provides what he calls "generelle teoretiske refleksjoner" [general theoretical reflections] (9) on topics such as animals rights, the presence of animals in creative works, the nuanced and complicated relationships between human and non-human animals, and conservation.In doing so, he touches on creative works by Nordic authors ranging from Camilla Collett, Henrik Ibsen, and Sigrid Undset to Tove Jansson and Kerstin Ekman.He also references a variety of historians, literary critics, ecocritics, and philosophers, including Martha Nussbaum and her recently published Justice for Animals: Our Collective Responsibility (2023).