Dark ecology and the representation of canids in Deon Meyer's Fever.

Deon Meyer's post-apocalyptic novel, Fever, opens with Nico Storm, the narrator, and his father being attacked by dogs. Nico is only thirteen years old, but is forced to shoot the dogs to rescue his father. This incident sets the scene for the rest of the novel. It characterises Nico and his father...

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Published in:Tydskrif vir Letterkunde Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 121 - 134
Main Author: Burger, Bibi
Format: Article
Published: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde 2018
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Dark ecology and the representation of canids in Deon Meyer's Fever.
      aug:
        au: Burger, Bibi
        affil: Lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria
      su:
        Fever (Book)
        Meyer, Deon
        Dogs in literature
        Human-animal relationships in literature
        Literary characters
      sug:
        subj:
          Fever (Book)
          Meyer, Deon
          Dogs in literature
          Human-animal relationships in literature
          Literary characters
      keyword:
        Dark Ecology
        Deon Meyer
        dogs in literature
        ecocriticism
        Fever
        object-oriented ontology
        speculative fiction
        Timothy Morton
      ab: Deon Meyer's post-apocalyptic novel, Fever, opens with Nico Storm, the narrator, and his father being attacked by dogs. Nico is only thirteen years old, but is forced to shoot the dogs to rescue his father. This incident sets the scene for the rest of the novel. It characterises Nico and his father and their relationship. It also informs the reader about the world in which the novel is set. Fever opens a few months after ninety-five percent of the world's population died as the result of a mysterious virus--one engineered in an attempt to redress ecological imbalances. In this article, the representation of dogs and other canids in Fever is used as a departure point to bring the worldviews of the various characters into dialogue with Timothy Morton's Dark Ecology. It is argued that the different worldviews (and the place accorded to canids in each) have political and ecological implications. Most of the worldviews can be understood in terms of what Morton calls the "agrilogistic loop" because they are based on the assumption that humans can and should manipulate the nonhuman. Two characters' view of canids are, however, closer to what Morton terms "ecognosis", because they acknowledge humans' (and canids') entanglement with the rest of nature.
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