Ted Hughes’s “The Jaguar” and Animal Ethics

IF 0.2 3区文学 0 LITERATURE

EXPLICATOR Pub Date : 2022-10-02 DOI:10.1080/00144940.2023.2200155

Toshiaki Komura

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract In the twenty-first century, particularly post-2019, we are compelled to reexamine the ethical and philosophical grounds of human-centered thinking and to ponder earnestly about the moral dimensions of engaging with nonhuman animals. This essay explicates Ted Hughes’s “The Jaguar” as presenting a double-vision of human perspectives and animal perspectives in its portrayal of a jaguar in a zoo cage. On the one hand, the jaguar is depicted as a visionary, whose spiritual freedom is unconstrained by its physical captivity. On the other hand, the feline is shown to be a captive animal displaying signs of distress. The poetic ambiguity of “The Jaguar” prompts the reader to imagine what might be the jaguar’s state of “flourishing,” in light of Martha Nussbaum’s theory of capabilities approach to animal welfare. By revealing the complexity of what it means to think through animal perspectives, Hughes’s “The Jaguar” urges us to develop metacognition about how we see and understand nonhuman animals.

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泰德·休斯的《美洲虎》与动物伦理学

摘要在21世纪，特别是2019年后，我们不得不重新审视以人为中心的思维的伦理和哲学基础，并认真思考与非人类动物交往的道德层面。本文阐述了特德·休斯的《美洲豹》在描绘动物园笼子里的美洲豹时，呈现了人类视角和动物视角的双重视角。一方面，美洲豹被描绘成一个有远见的人，其精神自由不受其身体束缚的约束。另一方面，这只猫被证明是一只表现出痛苦迹象的圈养动物。根据玛莎·努斯鲍姆（Martha Nussbaum）关于动物福利能力方法的理论，《美洲豹》的诗意模糊促使读者想象美洲豹的“繁荣”状态。休斯的《美洲豹》揭示了从动物角度思考的复杂性，促使我们对如何看待和理解非人类动物形成元认知。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

EXPLICATOR LITERATURE-

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期刊介绍： Concentrating on works that are frequently anthologized and studied in college classrooms, The Explicator, with its yearly index of titles, is a must for college and university libraries and teachers of literature. Text-based criticism thrives in The Explicator. One of few in its class, the journal publishes concise notes on passages of prose and poetry. Each issue contains between 25 and 30 notes on works of literature, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman times to our own, from throughout the world. Students rely on The Explicator for insight into works they are studying.