This collection explores the arguments related to veg(etari)anism as they play out in the public sphere and across media, historical eras, and geographical areas. As vegan and vegetarian practices have gradually become part of mainstream culture, stemming from multiple shifts in the socio-political, cultural, and economic landscape, discursive attempts to both legitimize and delegitimize them have amplified. With 12 original chapters, this collection analyses a diverse array of these legitimating strategies, addressing the practice of veg(etari)anism through analytical methods used in rhetorical criticism and adjacent fields.
Part I focuses on specific geo-cultural contexts, from early 20th century Italy, Serbia and Israel, to Islam and foundational Yoga Sutras. In Part II, the authors explore embodied experiences and legitimation strategies, in particular the political identities and ontological consequences coming from consumption of, or abstention from, meat. Part III looks at the motives, purposes and implication of veg(etari)anism as a transformative practice, from ego to eco, that should revolutionise our value hierarchies, and by extension, our futures. Offering a unique focus on the arguments at the core of the veg(etari)an debate, this collection provides an invaluable resource to scholars across a multitude of disciplines.
Author(s): Cristina Hanganu-Bresch, Kristin Kondrlik
Series: The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 324
City: Cham
Series Editors’ Preface
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Legitimation Strategies in Veg(etari)an and Anti-Veg(etari)an Discourses
Strategies of Legitimation in Veg(etari)an-Adjacent Discourses
A Definitional Note: Veganism, Vegetarianism, Veg(etari)anism
Structure of the Book
Bibliography
Part I: Cultural and Historical Perspectives on Vegetarianism
1: State of Meatlessness: Voluntary and Involuntary Vegetarianism in Early Twentieth-Century Italy
The Case of Italy
Meat and the Body
What to Cook
Vegetarianism Institutionalized Under Fascism
Bibliography
2: Taking an Anti-Sacrificial Stance: The Essentializing Rhetoric and Affective Nature of Meat Consumption in Islam
Religio-Historical Considerations
“A good deed done to an animal”: Is “Ethical Killing” Ethical?
Questioning the Sacred
Re-Examining the Contradictory Cultures of Meat, Blood, and Othering
Questioning the Centrality and Gendered Construction of Meat in Islam
Intersections of Veg(etari)anism and Environmental Sustainability in the MENA
Future Directions
Bibliography
3: Because We Care: Veganism and Politics in Israel
Vegan Rhetoric
Mobilizing Affect
Veganism, Popular Culture, and Politics
Discussion
Bibliography
4: Veg(etari)anism in Serbia: Attack on Traditional Values
Introduction: Vegetarians and Meat Eaters in Serbia
“It’s Their Choice, But…”
Tradition of Hospitality
Kindergarten Vegetarians—A Child Abuse?
Vegetarians, Cults, and Gay Rights
Eastern Orthodox Fasting and Vegetarianism
“Us” Versus “Them”: Vegetarianism as a Display of Foreign Values
Bibliography
5: Ancient Text, Modern Context: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the Twenty-First Century Veg(etari)an
Yoga and Vegetarianism
The Yamas: Wise Characteristics
The Niyamas: Codes for Living Soulfully
Conclusion
Bibliography
Part II: Veg(etari)anism as Embodied Practice
6: The Accidental Vegetarian: Object-Oriented Ontology at the Intersection of Alpha-Gal Mammalian Meat Allergy
Identity and Food
Alpha-Gal Description
Alpha-Gal: Both Medicine and Menace
Object-Oriented Ontology and Alpha-Gal Syndrome
In the Skin of the “Strange Stranger”
A Tick(et) into the Kingdom of the Sick
Vegan “Killjoys,” Carnivores, and Coexistence
Conclusion
Bibliography
7: “You Are What You Eat”: Oprah, Amarillo, and Food Politics
“The only mad cow in Amarillo is OPRAH”
The Power of a Good Haircut: Creating a Counternarrative
Conclusion
Bibliography
8: Queer Hunger: Human and Animal Bodies in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood
Bibliography
Part III: Eco Versus Ego: The Transformative Potential of Veg(etari)anism
9: Laying Down with the Lamb: Abolitionist Veganism, the Rhetoric of Human Exceptionalism, and the End of Creation
The Imago Dei: The Appeal to Genesis 1
Dominion
A Theology of Creation
Incarnating Life
The Messianic Kingdom
Conclusion: Towards Creation’s End
Bibliography
10: Feeling Bad? Veganism, Climate Change, and the Rhetoric of Cowspiracy
Rhetorical Documentaries and Cognitive Film Theory
“People Don’t Wanna Hear It”: The Affective Appeals of Cowspiracy
“It’s Real Hard”: Watching Cowspiracy in the Classroom
Conclusion
Bibliography
11: Constituting Vegetarian Audiences: Orchestrations of Egocentric, Anthropocentric, Ecocentric Exigencies in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals
Introduction
Vegetarianism’s Familial Exigencies
The Ethics of Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism and the Intersections of Individual, Public, and Environmental Health
Conclusion
Bibliography
12: Beyond Diet: Veganism as Liberatory Praxis
The “Who” in Veganism
Overlapping Oppressions in Animal Agriculture
Liberatory Connections
Resisting Veganism
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
