‘A pedigree bitch, like myself’: (Non)Human Illness and Death in Dorothy Molloy’s Poetry

Abstract

American biologist Edward O. Wilson has eloquently problematized the term Anthropocene, currently being used to refer to the new era the Earth is entering. Although such terminology emphasizes the centrality of our own species and its potential respect for the planet’s biodiversity, Wilson envisages the bleakness awaiting humanity if we continue changing the environment to meet our most immediate needs. For this reason, he prefers to call the coming era the Eremocene, i.e., ‘the Age of Loneliness’.² Poetic as the phrase may sound, the Age of Loneliness speaks to the utter solitude humans will be doomed to if there are no flora or fauna to reciprocate and balance their lives. Unless we halt the negative interaction with our ecosystems and bring ourselves into a more ‘sustainable Edenic existence’,³ the future generations of humans will be deprived of the sound of birds and of the richness of forest life.⁴ In her short story ‘The Snow Archives’, Aritha van Herk explores the social consequences of this kind of solitude and imagines the complete disappearance of snow from Canada: national identity is radically transformed. The trees start to look miserable in the winter cold without the protective whiteness of the snow, and the desolate landscape is made all the more poignant when the children chant ancient rhymes about the white element but are unable to grasp their meaning.

To be one is always to become with many

(Donna Haraway)

The author of this essay wants to acknowledge her participation in the funded Research Project FF2012-35872.