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Animals and Desire in South African Fiction pp 115–145Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Ways of Desiring: Postcolonial Animals and Affect in The Whale Caller

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature ((PSAAL))

Abstract

This chapter considers the different desires that occur in the relationships between the eponymous protagonist of Zakes Mda’s The Whale Caller (2005), Saluni, and a whale named Sharisha. In the setting of a highly stratified ecotourist village in South Africa where most characters relate to marine animals only through consumption and capitalization, the human–whale relationship between the protagonist and Sharisha offers a different mode of comportment. The chapter contends that the novel’s contribution to ecocritical thought is its insistence on positing non-human desire as a mode of resistance to neocolonial capitalist violence. Through a reading of Mda’s novel, it argues that an affective politics holds more promise than a rights approach to addressing the plight of humans, animals, and the environment in South Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Alabama, Florence, AL, USA

    Jason D. Price

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  1. Jason D. Price
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Correspondence to Jason D. Price .

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Price, J.D. (2017). Ways of Desiring: Postcolonial Animals and Affect in The Whale Caller . In: Animals and Desire in South African Fiction. Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56726-6_3

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