Books by Derek Ryan

A critical introduction to theoretical approaches to animals and animalityFrom caged orangutans to roasted pig, from dog training to horse phobias, from communicating bees to ruminating cows, Derek Ryan explores how animals are encountered in theoretical discourse. Across four thematically organised chapters on 'Animals as Humans', 'Animal Ontology', 'Animal Life' and 'Animal Ethics' he offers extended discussions of Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Derrida, Deleuze, Singer, Nussbaum, Adams and Haraway among others, as well as lively readings of contemporary literary texts by Carter, Coetzee, Auster and Foer. Intended as a resource for researchers, students, teachers and all those interested in human-animal relationships, Animal Theory: A Critical Introduction provides an accessible and authoritative account of the challenges and potential in thinking about and with animals.Key FeaturesProvides a wide-ranging discussion of theoretical approaches to animals in modern and contemporary philosophyOffers an accessible guide to key concepts in animal theoryIntervenes in current debates by critically engaging with theoretical issues and suggesting new ways to consider human-animal relationsIncludes close readings of four contemporary literary texts to supplement the theoretical discussionContains a list of 'Key Texts' and 'Further Reading' at the end of each chapterDerek Ryan is Lecturer in Modernist Literature at the University of Kent and author of Virginia Woolf and the Materiality of Theory: Sex, Animal, Life (Edinburgh University Press, 2013). His other publications include articles and essays that combine interests in modernism, philosophy and animal studies.

Explores Woolf's writing alongside Deleuze's philosophy and new materialist theories of 'sex', 'animal', and 'life'How does Virginia Woolf conceptualise the material world? In what ways has Woolf's modernism affected understandings of materiality, and what new perspectives does she offer contemporary theoretical debates? Derek Ryan demonstrates how materiality is theorised in Woolf's writings by focusing on the connections she makes between culture and nature, embodiment and environment, human and nonhuman, life and matter. Through close readings of texts including To the Lighthouse, Orlando, A Room of One's Own, The Waves, Flush, and 'Sketch of the Past', he details the fresh insights Woolf provides into issues concerning the natural world, sexual difference, sexuality, animality, and life itself. Ryan opens up Woolf studies to new theoretical paradigms by placing Woolf in dialogue with Gilles Deleuze - who cites her modernist aesthetics as exemplary of some of his most important philosophical concepts - as well as eminent contemporary theorists including Rosi Braidotti, Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, and Jane Bennett, all of whom have influenced the recent critical turn towards new materialisms. Locating theory within Woolf's writing as well as locating Woolf within theory, Virginia Woolf and the Materiality of Theory: Sex, Animal, Life brings her modernism firmly into to the foreground of current debates in literary studies, feminist philosophy, queer theory, animal studies and posthumanities.