Interest in the vegan studies field continues to grow as veganism has become increasingly visible via celebrity endorsements and universally acknowledged health benefits, and veganism and vegan characters are increasingly present in works of art and literature. Through a Vegan Studies Lens broadens the scope of vegan studies by engaging in the mainstream discourse found in a wide variety of contemporary works of literature, popular cultural representations, advertising, and news media.
Veganism is a practice that allows for environmentally responsible consumer choices that are viewed, particularly in the West, as oppositional to an economy that is largely dependent upon big agriculture. This groundbreaking collection exposes this disruption, critiques it, and offers a new roadmap for navigating and reimaging popular culture representations on veganism. These essays engage a wide variety of political, historical, and cultural issues, including contemporary political and social circumstances, emergent veganism in Eastern Europe, climate change, and the Syrian refugee crisis, among other topics.
Through a Vegan Studies Lens significantly furthers the conversation of what a vegan studies perspective can be and illustrates why it should be an integral part of cultural studies and critical theory. Vegan studies is inclusive, refusing to ignore the displacement, abuse, and mistreatment of nonhuman animals. It also looks to ignite conversations about cultural oppression.
Table of Contents
Doing Vegan Studies: An Introduction .........................................vii
Laura Wright
Part I: Vegan Studies, Expanding Ecocriticism(s) ...................1
Chapter 1: Vegans in Locavore Literature 3
Kathryn Kirkpatrick
Chapter 2: The New Environmental Literature: Perspectives of a Vegan Publisher 19
John Yunker
Chapter 3: How We Feel about (Not) Eating Animals: Vegan Studies and Cognitive Ecocriticism ......................31
Alexa Weik von Mossner
Part II: Vegan Studies in the United States .............................. 51
Chapter 4: The Sexual Politics of Meat in the Trump Era..................53
Carol J. Adams
Chapter 5: A Vegan Rhetorical Approach to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle..............................................................................75
Ryan Phillips
Chapter 6: Soylent Veganism: A Meditation on Cannibalism, Consumerism, and Veg Politics.........................................93
Thomas J. Hertweck
Chapter 7: Scarecrow Veganism: The Straw Man of Buddhist Vegan Identity in Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker and Jonathan Franzen’s Purity.................................................111
Christopher Kocela
Part III: Vegan Studies Beyond the West................................. 133
Chapter 8: South Africa “My Culture in a Tupperware”: Situational Ethics in Zoë Wicomb’s October.................................................135
Caitlin E. Stobie
Chapter 9: Estonia
The Rise of Veganism in Post-Socialist Europe: Making Sense of Emergent Vegan Practices and Identities in Estonia...............................................................................151
Kadri Aavik
Chapter 10: South Korea Looking at the Vegetarian Body: Narrative Points of View and Blind Spots in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian..................................................................171
Margarita Carretero-González
Chapter 11: Nonviolence through Veganism: An Anti-Racist Postcolonial Strategy for Healing, Agency, and Respect..............................................................................187
Shanti Chu
Part IV: Hypocrites and Hipsters; Meat and Meatlessness.... 209
Chapter 12: H is for Hypocrite: Reading “New Nature Writing” Through the Lens of Vegan Theory...............................211
Alex Lockwood
Chapter 13: The Best Little Slaughterhouse in Portland: Hipsters and the Rhetoric of Meat.................................229
D. Gilson
Chapter 14: Meatless Mondays?: A Vegan Studies Approach to Resistance in the College Classroom.............................247
Natalie M. Dorfeld
Conclusion ....................................................................................265
Laura Wright
About the Editor and Contributors .............................................279
