Finding the Human Animal: Embodiment in the Work of Laurie Anderson and Melanie Bonajo.

Abstract

This thesis, rooted within the scholarship of Animal Studies, aims to find new links between embodiment, the animal, and art. The animal is brought into culture and framed by humans, often violently. Most of the ways in which we perceive animals are ‘for human use’. How can we move beyond a relationship built on this violence and toward significant otherness, as coined by Donna Haraway? This thesis explores how theories on looking at art that shift our focus from vision toward the other senses of the body, can help us undo a human subjectivity that is based on a hierarchy of species. Zooësis is this project, formulated by Una Chaudhuri, of rethinking the nonhuman animal vs. the human animal in art. The work of artists Melanie Bonajo (The Death of Melanie Bonajo: How to Unmodernize Yourself and become and Elf in 12 Steps) and Laurie Anderson (Heart of a Dog) respectively address the exploitation and empowerment of women’s bodies in capitalized society, and the loving relationship between Laurie and her dog Lolabelle. By discussing their work in relation to the concept of sensation from Gilles Deleuze and abjection from Julia Kristeva, as well as keeping one eye on the animal, this thesis aims to understand how art can help us create a more inclusive subjectivity. Perhaps, finding new connections with our own (animal) bodies, can help us move towards a new way of being-in-the-world, at once exposed and vulnerable, just like all other species.