Animality in literature: a case study of My Talks with Dean Spanley

Human and animal commonality and diversity has been drawing a lot of studious attention in present day societies worldwide. The reflection of the animal perception in human narratives historically and at present day appear to be of particular interest. Fictional studies of animal life highlight the values that humans are ready to deserve in animal behaviour. These values and their rule over the animal life are often taken as benchmarks to human value orientations. A case study of an Anglo-Irish writers Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett Baron Dunsanys short novel My Talks with Dean Spanley gives us an early insight into the reflection of an animal world in a human world and vice versa. The study of human and animal experiences physically and emotionally close, similar or identical open up the ethics of reporting on those experiences; the issues of narrator`s involvement into and of distancing from the animal world and the physical and emotional commonalities of this world with the human world. The scope of analysis reaches towards the issues of identity and of the transactions with the Other as appears to be reflected in the nature.