Decentring The Fiction of Being Human

Abstract

Vivo is an experimental novel which examines how fiction might move towards decentring an anthropocentric perspective. Told from the fractured viewpoint of five characters, it is a story of how one woman’s empathy towards the natural world is given physical manifestation when she evolves to become a hybridised plant/animal/human being. The accompanying commentary examines the work of other writers, such as Mary Shelley, Indra Sinha, and Karen Joy Fowler, and explores the challenges of presenting an other-than-human point of view through written language. The critical framework behind the thesis asks how an anthropocentric perspective might be shifted by confronting the vulnerability of an established mindset, and how valuable fiction is as a way of exploring this vulnerability. Vivo also questions how a goal-driven society directs and impacts on the perceived usefulness of various life forms and societal groups. The novel attempts to reclaim the importance of physicality by pushing both writer and reader into a vulnerable space. The language which is the body of the text confronts its own limitations, as a communicative medium rooted in the fictional construct of humanity.

Date of Award	21 Feb 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Andrew Webb (Supervisor) & Zoë Skoulding (Supervisor)