Rewilding Animal Studies: Biodiversity Bias in Modernist Fiction and Criticism

We are living through the greatest loss of biodiversity in human history. Yet, little is known about the human subjective experience of biodiversity. Beyond an understanding of the scientific concept, how do we perceive and portray biodiversity in culture? This study investigates the aesthetic dimensions of biodiversity through the lens of European and Latin American modernist fiction, which was written during a period defined by globalisation, urbanisation and industrialisation: key drivers of biodiversity loss. Although biodiversity richness differs greatly between the European and Latin American geographies, sampled works of fiction have similar numbers and types of animal species. According to the sample, biodiversity in modernist fiction is not merely skewed in relation to global representations of biodiversity but is almost reversely correlated to statistics on animal biomass and described species. Animal Studies in the humanities amplifies this bias by focusing almost exclusively on individual animal characters with advanced cognition. By embracing a biodiverse perspective, Animal Studies can be significantly more inclusive, representative, and diverse in its discussion of animals.