Overview

Whether unicorns, phoenix, and chimera, or axolotl, jaguars, and giant snakes, animals have often had the human experience grafted onto them, in a conscious or unconscious reflection of a society's beliefs, ambitions, and inequalities. This volume seeks to explore different representations of real and imaginary animals across Hispanic literary production from the early modern era to the present day in order to gain a better understanding of how they serve as projections of human identities, knowledge, values, and vices. How do beasts enable the colonizing gaze and its reaches? How might beasts offer a means of decolonizing the Hispanophone world? And how do beasts articulate social unrest and a desire to resist inequality, poverty, and other ills of the modern world that collectively reinforce the status quo? Working to better understand how Spanish and Latin American authors, illustrators, and graphic artists have understood animals and beasts, and how they interacted with them, contributors from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Spain shed light on the use of animals as symbols and emblems, as well as how they have been employed to construct others as monstrous and less human.

Full Product Details

Author:   Professor Lauren Beck ,  Dr Ailén Cruz ,  Dr Samantha Ruckenstein ,  Adrián Collado Icardo
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   Tamesis Books
ISBN:  

9781855664241

ISBN 10:   1855664240
Pages:   248
Publication Date:   03 February 2026
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction. Animal Symbolism in Hispanic Literature: From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Dayby Lauren Beck, Ailén Cruz, and Samantha Penina Ruckenstein Part I: 16th-18th Centuries - The First Proverbial Transatlantic Zoo Chapter 1. The Transatlantic Bestiaries of Felipe Guamán Poma (Waman Puma), c. 1615 by Lauren Beck Chapter 2. Monsters, American Animals, and Mirabilia in Gerónimo de Huerta and his Translation of the Natural History (1624) by Penélope Marcela Fernández Izaguirre Chapter 3. (In)human Nature: Discourses over the Distinctions between Man and Beast in the Indigenous-Language Christian Pedagogies of New Spain by Tania Bride Chapter 4. ""La natural inclinación se olvida:"" Animal Transformation in Cervantes by Adrián Collado Part II: 20th Century - Prowling for Pathways toward a New Future Chapter 5. Uncanny Urodeles: The Case of Julio Cortázar's ""Axolotl"" by Ailén Cruz Chapter 6. Animal Skins/Human Souls: Figurations of the Jaguar in Contemporary Brazilian and Spanish American Literature by Odile Cisneros Chapter 7. Of Nahuals and Angels: Neoliberal Reinterpretations and Transnational Mythology in Édgar Clément's Operación Bolívarby Alejandro Ramírez-Méndez Chapter 8. ""Fausto"" and Marina: Cats, Sickness, and Twentieth Century Spain by Samantha Penina Ruckenstein Part III: 21st Century - In the Beast's Clothing Chapter 9. Animal Adventures for Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's China Iron by Elena Campero Chapter 10. Colonizing Monsters and Decolonizing Beasts: The Case of Mariana Enriquez's Our Share of Night by Alba Devo Colis Chapter 11. Forms of the Beast: The Figure of the Werewolf in Three Recent Mexican Novels by Alejandro Soifer Chapter 12. Animal Metaphors and Gender Violence in Contemporary Spain: (Non)Fictional Narratives by Irene López-Rodríguez

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Author Information

LAUREN BECK holds the Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter and is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of the Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture at Mount Allison University. AILÉN CRUZ writes the bilingual Substack Prone to Hyperbole and is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture at Mount Allison University. SAMANTHA PENINA RUCKENSTEIN is Lecturer of Visual and Material Culture Studies at Mount Allison University as well as an Assistant Professor of Spanish through St. Thomas University's Aotiitj Program on Elsipogtog First Nation. AILÉN CRUZ writes the bilingual Substack Prone to Hyperbole and is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture at Mount Allison University. LAUREN BECK holds the Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter and is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of the Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture at Mount Allison University. SAMANTHA PENINA RUCKENSTEIN is Lecturer of Visual and Material Culture Studies at Mount Allison University as well as an Assistant Professor of Spanish through St. Thomas University's Aotiitj Program on Elsipogtog First Nation.

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