Sacrificial Pets and Maternal Instinct in Gloria Sawai's "Mother's Day" and Barbara Gowdy's <em>Falling Angels</em>

Authors

  • Neta Gordon Brock University, teaches courses on Canadian Literature and Literary Theory. She has published on such authors as Ann-Marie MacDonald, Jane Urquhart, Barbara Gowdy, and Sky Lee.

Abstract

Sawai's and Gowdy's representations of the deaths of kittens demonstrate how the category of pet depends on an inherent relationality to humans, thus confronting the extent to which hierarchical social coding has been normalized. Further, human-pet relations symbolically illuminate how motherhood is implicated in similar social codes that require self-sacrifice. Résumé Les représentations de Sawai et de Gowdy de la mort de chatons démontrent comment la catégorie d'animal familier dépend d'une relation inhérente aux humains, confrontant ainsi l'étendue à laquelle le codage hiérarchique et social a été normalisé. De plus, les relations entre les humains et les animaux familiers illumine de façon symbolique la façon dont la maternité est reliée à des codes sociaux similaires qui requièrent l'abnégation.

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Fort Amherst Lighthouse. St. John's, Newfoundland, 2008. Photographer: Brad Gibb

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Published

2008-01-01

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 1 (2008): Open Topic Issue

Section

Original Research

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