Die politiek van die mens-hondverhouding in <i>Op ’n dag, ’n hond</i> van John Miles

Abstract

The politics of the human-dog relationship in Op ’n dag, ’n hond by John Miles. This article investigates the way in which the human-dog relationship is presented in the novel Op ’n dag, ’n hond by John Miles. The premise of this article is that the novel can be read within the theoretical framework of Posthumanism, in which the embodied communalities of humans and animals (dogs) are emphasised. Despite the differences between the human and nonhuman animal, it is possible to constitute relationality, based on their shared physical mortality. The investigation will focus on the visual paradigm of the novel: the reciprocal view between dog and human, human and dog, which contradicts anthropocentricism and establishes an intersubjective relationship. The dog as guide embodies a moral agent that causes the teacher to look downward, into the underworld, as well as backward to the past. This, in turn, foregrounds the issues of loyalty and betrayal, and the balance between good and evil in a human life.

‘Dít wat ons mense maak’: Posthumanisme en affek in In ’n land sonder voëls (Harry Kalmer)

“…Samevattend beskryf Braidotti (2013:49), 2 soos aangehaal deur Nel (2018), die parameters van die posthumanistiese subjek soos volg: [P]osthuman theory is a generative tool to help us re-think the basic unit of reference for the human in the bio-genetic age known as the 'anthropocene', the historical moment when the human has become a geological force capable of affecting all life on this planet. By extention, it can also help us rethink the basic tenets of our interaction with both human and non-human agents on planetary scale.…”