The stakes of the animal cause appear more and more often on the side of the literature. As proof, the Educ Pop Animaliste association has been awarding the Maya Prize since 2019, the first animalist literary award in France. Awarded in three categories, Novel, Comics and Children’s Literature, the prize aims to “highlight works of fiction that advance the animal cause”.
When it comes to demonstrating that animals have moral rights and that they should be treated accordingly by justice, several studies emerge each year. Among those that have appeared recently in Quebec, let us mention Radical animal,by Jérôme Segal (Lux, 2020), that do vegans want? by Alexia Renard and Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert (Fides, 2021) and (V)equal, under the direction of Marilou Boutet (Somme tout, 2021). But what about literature? Would it have a role to play in the opening of consciences, perhaps would it even have a head start on tests considered by many as off-putting? Executive Director of the Montreal SPCA and author, notably of I eat with my head (Stanké, 2011), Élise Desaulniers believes that literature is a source of moral improvement. “It’s an idea that I take from the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, specifies the insatiable reader. Novels lead us to imagine possibilities, to see things differently and to develop compassion. Reading broadens our perspectives. To change mentalities, works of fiction would quite simply take another path than that of theoretical works. “Unlike an essay, believes Desaulniers, I don’t believe that a novel can convince anyone of anything. That said, it can allow you to see and feel things in ways that have never been envisioned before, like a world without animal exploitation, for example. It seems fundamental to me to go through this. You cannot create a world without first imagining it. »
Captivity, breeding and marketing
There exists in contemporary French literature a real current whose works depict the fate reserved for animals by humans. The names of Camille Brunel and Jean-Baptiste Del Amo come up often (see box), but there are other writers whose novels are celebrated. Florence Aubry is interested in cetaceans in captivity in black titan (from Rouergue, 2018). Vincent Message imagines a world where humans are served their own medicine in Defeat of masters and possessors (Threshold, 2016). Lucie Rico gives birth to a veritable fable on the marketing of poultry in The Song of the Sous Vide Chicken (POL, 2020). Isabelle Sorente reveals the dark underside of an industrial pig farm with 180 days (JC Lattes, 2013).
In The absentee zoo, Joël Baqué provokes an unlikely encounter between René, a retired accountant, and Lison, a young animal activist. Published in February, the novel, the author’s sixth book published by POL editions, tackles the delicate question of the suffering of wild animals, a current which is far from being unanimous within the anti-speciesist movement. This is how René will find himself involved in an operation to sterilize 28 species of predators deemed too ferocious. Taking a dystopian turn, even flirting with transhumanism, the truly epic adventure demonstrates that any logic, however healthy it may be at the start, can guide the absolute lover straight towards the worst.
The strength of the designs
There are also comics, whether satirical or documentary, titles that address different aspects of the animal cause. In France, let us mention cheeky veggie (La Plage, 2021), a hilarious yet informative series by Rosa B., and like a beast (Rue de l’échiquier, 2020), an album in which Cédric Taling stages a fertile clash of generations. In Quebec, Eve Marie Gingras, the author of How (and why) I became vegan (Écosociété, 2020), acts as a pioneer.
With Anthropogenic journal of the cause animal, a comic book whose story and drawing she signs, the Frenchwoman Anne Defreville, passionate about environmental issues, takes us into her daily life, shares her questions. She translates the ideas of the specialists she meets without taking a position, contenting herself with accompanying their remarks with sublime illustrations. We will see through his eyes an ornithological center and a tannery of crocodile skins, we will go to the CNRS and the SPA, we will hear different ecological associations. Restoring a journey, a patient introspection, this book exposes with rigor and sensitivity the contradictory attitude of humans towards animals.
Three recommendations from Élise Desaulniers, Executive Director of the Montreal SPCA