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Animal Symbolism in Hispanic Literature
From the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day
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Edited by:
Lauren Beck
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
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.
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.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Lauren Beck
LAUREN BECK is Canada Research Chair in Intercultural Encounter and Professor of Hispanic Studies at Mount Allison University, Canada.
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Contributor: Ailén Cruz
AILÉN CRUZ is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture at Mount Allison University, Canada..
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Contributor: Samantha Ruckenstein
SAMANTHA 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, Canada.
Topics
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Frontmatter
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CONTENTS
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ILLUSTRATIONS
vii -
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CONTRIBUTORS
ix -
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Introduction
1 - PART I SIXTEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES – THE FIRST PROVERBIAL TRANSATLANTIC ZOO
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1 The Transatlantic Bestiaries of Felipe Guamán Poma (Waman Puma), c. 1615
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2 Monsters, American Animals, and Mirabilia in Gerónimo de Huerta and his Translation of the Natural History (1624)
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3 (In)Human Nature: Discourses over the Distinctions between Man and Beast in the Indigenous-Language Christian Pedagogies of New Spain
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4 “La natural inclinación se olvida:” Animal Transformation in Cervantes
70 - PART II TWENTIETH CENTURY – PROWLING FOR PATHWAYS TOWARD A NEW FUTURE
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5 Uncanny Urodeles: The Case of Julio Cortázar’s “Axolotl”
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6 Animal Skins/Human Souls: Figurations of the Jaguar in Contemporary Brazilian and Spanish American Literature
100 -
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7 Of Nahuals and Angels: Neoliberal Reinterpretations and Transnational Mythology in Édgar Clément’s Operación Bolívar
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8 “Fausto” and Marina: Cats, Sickness, and Twentieth-Century Spain
138 - PART III: TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY – IN THE BEAST’S CLOTHING
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9 Animal Adventures for Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s China Iron
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10 Colonizing Monsters and Decolonizing Beasts: The Case of Mariana Enríquez’s
176 -
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11 Forms of the Beast: The Figure of the Werewolf in Three Recent Mexican Novels
195 -
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12 Animal Metaphors and Gender Violence in Contemporary Spain: (Non)Fictional Narratives
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INDEX
231
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 3, 2026
eBook ISBN:
9781805439844
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781805439844
Keywords for this book
Hispanic Literature; Animal Symbolism; Early Modern Era; Colonizing Gaze; Decolonizing Hispanophone; Social Unrest; Spanish Authors; Latin American Authors; Illustrators; Graphic Artists; Monstrous; Human Identities
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
