University of Nevada Press Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism (Cultural Ecologies of Food in the 21st Century)

This edited collection showcases an international mix of activist scholars who maintain that a vegan studies perspective is an important addition to the cultural studies landscape. Through a Vegan Studies Lens broadens the scope of vegan studies by engaging in a variety of texts and contexts and examines vegan pedagogical praxis and vegan publishing, as well as intersections between vegan theory, critical race theory, queer theory, postcolonial theory, and feminism. Review Through a Vegan Studies Lens is an invigorating collection for academics in the fields of vegan studies, as well as the intersecting fields of food, environmental, and animal studies.-- "Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment""I'm thrilled to see this book because it's a necessary text, not only for those in the fields of vegan, animal, and environmental studies but for all who care about animals and the planet. This book challenges conventional cultural norms and inspires us to change old ways of thinking and to do better."-- "Eco Lit Books" About the Author Laura Wright is the author of three books and a professor of English at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina, where she specializes in postcolonial literatures and theory, ecocriticism, and animal studies. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Doing Vegan Studies: An Introduction Laura Wright In &;Animal Worlds in Modern Fiction,&; the introduction to his 2014 edited special issue of Modern Fiction Studies, David Herman begins with an analysis of Jonathan Lethem&;s 2014 short story &;Pending Vegan.&; Herman notes that &;the story, focalized through [Paul] Espeseth, explores how two days after going off his medication the protagonist finds himself in a fragile, fearful psychological state, slowed in his progression from pending to actual vegan&; (422). Paul&;s position of being stuck in between omnivorous present and herbivorous future occurs from a combination of laziness and a sense of shame at the possibility of admitting to being vegan as well as a kind of dread of being held accountable to some higher power for failing to become vegan. Veganism as a possible identity embarrasses Paul, but not embracing veganism, he fears, endangers his soul. Further, Herman notes that in an interview in the New Yorker, Lethem traces the origin of the story to a class that he was teaching on &;Animals and Literature,&; for which he prepared by purchasing (but not reading in their entirety) numerous vegan and animal rights manifestos. In the interview, Lethem says, &;What would it be to think you&;ve gone about halfway, or not even halfway, down some irreversible ethical path, then got stuck there?&; (qtd. in Herman 422). I mention this anecdote as Herman situates it in his own work as a way of engaging the &;remarkably divided sensibility, a profoundly double vision&; (422) that often characterizes animal studies more broadly: in the realm of animal studies approaches, as scholars, we can write about, theorize about&;and care about&;animals, even as we might continue to instrumentalize, ingest, and exploit them. But I also mention Lethem&;s story because it effectively illustrates the place from which a specifically vegan studies approach emerges and differentiates itself from more familiar conceptions of &;animal studies,&; an umbrella term for a three-pronged field that gained prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s, consisting of critical animal studies, human animal studies, and posthumanism. While veganism is certainly a consideration of these modes of inquiry, it is also a distinctly different entity, an ethical delineator that for many scholars marks a complicated boundary between theoretical pursuit and lived experience. From the perspectives of many of us working to make veganism &;fit&; as scholarly endeavor and deeply held identity category, animal studies had &;gone about halfway [and] then