In this episode, The Resilient Animal Podcast host Dr. Annie Petersen, explores why animals appear across world literature, from ancient oral traditions to contemporary writing. The episode traces animal fables as moral and political teaching tools in Aesop and the Panchatantra, then shifts to 19th–20th century animal symbolism in works like Melville’s Moby-Dick and Poe’s “The Raven,” where humans project meaning onto animals. It examines politically charged uses of animals in Orwell’s Animal Farm, structural critique in Sinclair’s The Jungle, and the “beast within” in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. It also discusses Life of Pi’s tiger as a lens on storytelling and survival, and African diaspora trickster traditions as coded resistance. The episode concludes by questioning the ethics of using animals as human instruments and urges deeper engagement with animals as subjects in their own right.
00:00 Welcome to The Resilient Animal
00:30 Why Animals in Stories
02:03 Origins of Animal Tales
02:52 Aesop and Moral Types
05:40 Pancha Tantra Politics
08:15 Nineteenth Century Symbols
08:58 Moby Dick White Whale
11:54 Poe and Projected Grief
15:02 Animal Farm Allegory
17:48 The Jungle and Industry
19:36 Lord of the Flies Beast
20:57 Modern Rethinking Animals
21:23 Life of Pi and Meaning
23:55 Tricksters and Resistance
25:17 New Nature Writing Now
25:44 What It All Means
28:36 Closing and Farewell