When Animals Speak

Winner, 2020 ASCA Book Award, given by the Amsterdam School of Cultural AnalysisA groundbreaking argument for the political rights of animals In When Animals Speak, Eva Meijer develops a new, ground-breaking theory of language and politics, arguing that non-human animals speak—and, most importantly, act—politically. From geese and squid to worms and dogs, she highlights the importance of listening to animal voices, introducing ways to help us bridge the divide between the human and non-human world. Drawing on insights from science, philosophy, and politics, Meijer provides fascinating, real-world examples of animal communities who use their voices to speak, and act, in political ways. When Animals Speak encourages us to rethink our relations with other animals, showing that their voices should be taken into account as the starting point for a new interspecies democracy.

Our entanglements with other animals shape our politics, our ethics, and our very concepts. These relationships often dangerously impact the wellbeing of other animals. In this comprehensive and passionate exploration, Eva Meijer argues that other animals are agents in these relationships, with their own perspectives and experiences, their own sensibilities and capacities to resist misrepresentation. The task for us is to learn to listen to what they are telling us, and once we do we can work to enrich all of our lives., In When Animals Speak, Eva Meijer brings together years of research into a singularly revelatory text. There is much discourse these days about ‘the political turn’ in animal studies—such a development requires the work of Meijer to examine its own presuppositions and enabling assumptions. Her eclectic use of sources from across the philosophic spectrum is refreshing and helpful. Bravo!, Meijer has produced a rich, imaginative, and deeply readable book. It is one that I will come back to again and again, and one that I have had numerous conversations about with others – academics and non-academics, and (Meijer will be pleased to hear) humans and non-humans., Meijer makes the important point that humans need to consider other animals on the basis of their reality rather than relying on an anthropocentric view of them., Ambitious ... Meijer emphasizes that animals are not passive objects for humans to ignore or argue over—or collect, Tiger King–style—but 'individuals with their own perspectives on life,' and members of communities with which our species coexists. That animals are in this sense political actors is an underrecognized and, to my mind, potentially powerful point of convergence between the animal-rights and ecological-protection movements: both traditions hold that animals have needs and wants that humans are more than capable of understanding, and should attend to.

Eva Meijer is a postdoctoral researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and the author of many books, including Animal Languages.