Books by Claire Parkinson
Animals, Anthropomorphism and Mediated Encounters, 2019
This book critically investigates the pervasiveness of anthropomorphised animals in popular cultu... more This book critically investigates the pervasiveness of anthropomorphised animals in popular culture.
Anthropomorphism in popular visual media has long been denounced for being unsophisticated or emotionally manipulative. It is often criticised for over-expressing similarities between humans and other animals. This book focuses on everyday encounters with visual representations of anthropomorphised animals and considers how attributing other animals with humanlike qualities speaks to a complex set of power relations. Through a series of case studies, it explores how anthropomorphism is produced and circulated and proposes that it can serve to create both misunderstandings and empathetic connections between humans and other animals.
In recent years few topics within film studies, and especially Hollywood cinema, have attracted m... more In recent years few topics within film studies, and especially Hollywood cinema, have attracted more attention than American independent cinema. Written by some of the leading authors in the field, American independent cinema: indie, indiewood and beyond will introduce students to recent developments as well as reviewing, reassessing and revising particular positions, approaches and arguments concerning American independent cinema.
Claire Molloy argues that animal narratives and imagery are economically significant for popular ... more Claire Molloy argues that animal narratives and imagery are economically significant for popular media industries which, in turn, play an important role in shaping the limits and norms of public discourses on animals and animal issues. Through analysis of various popular examples this book grapples with some of the industrial, social, cultural and ethical aspects of media discourses on animals. By examining how popular media forms constitute key sources of information, definitions and images, the author explores some of the myriad ways in which media discourses sustain a range of constructions of animals that are connected, appropriated or co-opted by other systems of production and so play a role in the normalisation of particular practices.
Beyond Human investigates what it means to call ourselves human beings in relation to both our di... more Beyond Human investigates what it means to call ourselves human beings in relation to both our distant past and our possible futures as a species, and the questions this might raise for our relationship with the myriad species with which we share the planet. Drawing on insights from zoology, theology, cultural studies and aesthetics, an international line-up of contributors explore such topics as our origins as reflected in early cave art in the upper Palaeolithic through to our prospects at the forefront of contemporary biotechnology. In the process, the book positions “the human” in readiness for what many have characterized as our transhuman or posthuman future. For if our status as rational animals or "animals that think" has traditionally distinguished us as apparently superior to other species, this distinction has become increasingly problematic. It has come to be seen as based on skills and technologies that do not distinguish us so much as position us as transitional animals. It is the direction and consequences of this transition that is the central concern of Beyond Human.
Ambiguous, complex and innovative, Christopher Nolan's Memento has intrigued audiences and critic... more Ambiguous, complex and innovative, Christopher Nolan's Memento has intrigued audiences and critics since the day of its release. Memento is the archetypal 'puzzle film', a noir thriller about a man with short-term memory loss seemingly seeking revenge for the death of his wife but finding it increasingly difficult to navigate through the facts. Truth, memory and identity are all questioned in a film that refuses to give easy answers or to adhere to some of the fundamental rules of classical filmmaking as the film makes use of some audacious stylistic and narrative choices, including a unique (for American cinema) editing pattern that produces a dizzying and highly disorienting effect for the spectator. The book introduces Memento as an important independent film and uses it to explore relationships between "indie," arthouse and commercial mainstream cinema while also examining independent film marketing practices, especially those associated with Newmarket, the film's producer and distributor. Finally, the book also locates Memento within debates around key film studies concepts such as genre, narrative and reception.
Papers by Claire Parkinson
Anthropos, Dec 1, 2023
This article examines historical connections between social class, masculinity, and dog breeds in... more This article examines historical connections between social class, masculinity, and dog breeds in British culture. It gives an account of the nineteenth and twentieth century origins of the pit bull terrier and Staffordshire bull terrier, and the dogs' links to masculine identity, working class culture and practices. It examines the introduction of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, uk legislation intended to protect the public from dangerous dogs. Through an examination of the discursive framing of pit bulls, this article argues that there are historical continuities that connect social class with specific dog types, and these associations have informed legislative decision-making. Analysing media and political discourses, this article establishes how the relationship between class identity and breed shaped the public and political debate on dangerous dogs and impacts the material reality of dogs' lives.
See also http://uknea.unep-wcmc.org/Resources/tabid/82/Default.aspx
Edge Hill University is based on an award-winning 160-acre campus in Lancashire. The University i... more Edge Hill University is based on an award-winning 160-acre campus in Lancashire. The University is one of the select few universities to have held the Times Higher Education University of the Year title (2014/15). Edge Hill is ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF). The Edge Hill University Centre for Human / Animal Studies (CfHAS) is an interdisciplinary centre for research and activities that engage with the complex material, ethical and symbolic relationships between humans and other animals.
Edge Hill University is based on an award-winning 160-acre campus in Lancashire. The University i... more Edge Hill University is based on an award-winning 160-acre campus in Lancashire. The University is one of the select few universities to have held the Times Higher Education University of the Year title (2014/15). Edge Hill is ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF). The Edge Hill University Centre for Human / Animal Studies (CfHAS) is an interdisciplinary centre for research and activities that engage with the complex material, ethical and symbolic relationships between humans and other animals.
The research took place between January 2018 and November 2019. It involved an extensive literatu... more The research took place between January 2018 and November 2019. It involved an extensive literature review, an online questionnaire which had over 1674 respondents of which 1435 were non-vegan UK respondents, 12 focus groups with 90 participants, and fifty face-toface interviews.
Sustainability
Food packages must communicate mandatory information, but they can also be used for marketing pra... more Food packages must communicate mandatory information, but they can also be used for marketing practices such as promotion and are a communication pathway from industry to consumer. Considering that cows are the main beings affected by the dairy industry, it is essential to scrutinise what dairy product packages convey about them. The aims of this study are to analyse the occurrence of reference to cows on the packaging of dairy products in popular supermarket retail stores in Brazil and the United Kingdom and to discuss ethical implications of promotional practices of dairy producers. We found that in both countries most packaging does not refer to cows at all. In the UK, an average of 31% of the packaging used some visual reference to cows, and in Brazil an average of 15% of packaging used some visual reference to cows. We identified four modalities of cow signifiers with a strong common appeal to nature that reflect and reaffirm an idyllic narrative of milk production. Our finding...
Screening Nature
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and... more All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, ╰ Acknowledgements The editors wish to thank the two anonymous readers for their invaluable comments and advice. Specifi c portions of the book, as well as its overall structure, benefi tt ed signifi cantly from their observations and suggestions. We also thank the staff at Berghahn, in particular Commissioning Editor Mark Stanton and Production Editor Charlott e Mosedale, for their patience and support in bringing the project to fruition. The contributing authors have helped us broaden our critical and cinematic horizons in pleasantly unexpected ways. It has been instructive to work together. We are grateful to Rose Lowder for kindly permitt ing the use of a series of frames from her 1994 fi lm Bouquet 4 on the book cover. My thanks to Richard Twine, Tom Tyler, Bob McKay, and Silke Panse for tips, references and suggestions along the way.-Anat Pick I want to thank my family-Mark, Agatha, and Willem-for their love and support as I have worked on this volume. Most of all, thank you to Mark for stepping into the domestic void I occasionally leave when writing.-Guinevere Narraway This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.
Popular Media and Animals, 2011
A quick glance at the roster of Hollywood horror films from any decade will reveal that filmmaker... more A quick glance at the roster of Hollywood horror films from any decade will reveal that filmmakers have had few problems in envisioning any species of animal as a monster. Insects, fish, birds and all manner of domestic and wild mammals have been marshalled by screenwriters, directors and studios in order that audiences should be terrified, horrified or, in the case of some of the more fantastical or ultra-low-budget horror depictions, amused. Horror films reflect social and cultural anxieties, and the circumstances that give rise to fictional monsters are often rooted in science-fact such that each new era of scientific discovery brings a new generation of monster forms into existence. Irrespective of the degree to which news media might celebrate scientific discoveries, horror films can cut through the abstraction of science and the hyperbole of human advancement to imagine the more sinister outcomes that such innovations might herald. In this sense, on-screen threats can imagine and amplify the offscreen risks to human and animal lives. Often the monstrous animal is not in itself the most terrible aspect of the narrative and is instead the outcome of a much greater hazard that has been wrought by humans interfering in some way in ‘nature’. Risks posed by pollution, nuclear testing, genetic experimentation and so forth are the contexts from which monsters emerge, and many horror films eschew a closed narrative structure leaving the audience to ponder on what will happen next.1 Thus, whilst it is true that open narrative structures leave the possibility of a franchised sequel on the cards, they also suggest that although the monster of this film may have been stopped the human science that created them still exists. This is one way in which fictional monsters can ‘leak’ into social reality.
Popular Media and Animals, 2011
There was little change to British farming practices between 1914 and 1916. As war broke out, the... more There was little change to British farming practices between 1914 and 1916. As war broke out, the government’s main concern was that there should be a large enough labour force available to ensure that crops could be harvested. Official guidance offered to farmers by the Agricultural Consultative Committee was limited to recommendations that wheat production should be increased and the numbers of livestock maintained. In the first two years of the war, the number of dairy cows stayed reasonably consistent at around 2.2 million whilst the overall size of the national cattle population increased to 7.44 million and the sheep population during the same time remained at around 25 million.1 Increases in the cattle population reflected the choices that farmers made to maintain the numbers of cows in preference to sheep or pigs when, in 1915, feed shortages began to affect livestock farming. Sheep and pigs represented a much smaller capital investment than cattle, and cows also offered the advantage of milk as a constant income stream. The costs of rebuilding a national cattle herd were considered too high; sheep and pigs were thus more ‘expendable’ and as a result, by 1916, the numbers of pigs had decreased by 7 per cent (Dewey, 1989, p. 82).
Uploads
Books by Claire Parkinson
Anthropomorphism in popular visual media has long been denounced for being unsophisticated or emotionally manipulative. It is often criticised for over-expressing similarities between humans and other animals. This book focuses on everyday encounters with visual representations of anthropomorphised animals and considers how attributing other animals with humanlike qualities speaks to a complex set of power relations. Through a series of case studies, it explores how anthropomorphism is produced and circulated and proposes that it can serve to create both misunderstandings and empathetic connections between humans and other animals.
Papers by Claire Parkinson
Anthropomorphism in popular visual media has long been denounced for being unsophisticated or emotionally manipulative. It is often criticised for over-expressing similarities between humans and other animals. This book focuses on everyday encounters with visual representations of anthropomorphised animals and considers how attributing other animals with humanlike qualities speaks to a complex set of power relations. Through a series of case studies, it explores how anthropomorphism is produced and circulated and proposes that it can serve to create both misunderstandings and empathetic connections between humans and other animals.