This wide-ranging volume explores the tension between the dietary practice of veganism and the manifestation, construction, and representation of a vegan identity in today’s society.
Emerging in the early 21st century, vegan studies is distinct from more familiar conceptions of "animal studies," an umbrella term for a three-pronged field that gained prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s, consisting of critical animal studies, human animal studies, and posthumanism. While veganism is a consideration of these modes of inquiry, it is a decidedly different entity, an ethical delineator that for many scholars marks a complicated boundary between theoretical pursuit and lived experience. The Routledge Handbook of Vegan Studies is the must-have reference for the important topics, problems, and key debates in the subject area and is the first of its kind. Comprising over 30 chapters by a team of international contributors, this handbook is divided into five parts:
- History of vegan studies
- Vegan studies in the disciplines
- Theoretical intersections
- Contemporary media entanglements
- Veganism around the world
These sections contextualize veganism beyond its status as a dietary choice, situating veganism within broader social, ethical, legal, theoretical, and artistic discourses. This book will be essential reading for students and researchers of vegan studies, animal studies, and environmental ethics.
PART 1 History and foundational texts
1 Framing vegan studies: vegetarianism, veganism, animal studies, ecofeminism
Laura Wright
2 Pythagoras, Plutarch, Porphyry, and the ancient defense of the vegetarian choice
Joanna Komorowska
3 Vegetarian and vegan histories
Tom Hertweck
4 The analytic philosophers: Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation and Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights
Josh Milburn
5 The "posthumanists": Cary Wolfe and Donna Haraway
Eva Giraud
PART 2 Vegan studies in the disciplines: humanities
6 Vegan literature for children: epistemic resistance, agency, and the Anthropocene
Marzena Kubisz
7 Veganism, ecoethics, and climate change in Margaret Atwood’s "MaddAddam" trilogy
Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad
8 Vegan Cervantes: meat consumption and social degradation in Dialogue of the Dogs
José Manuel Marrero Henríquez
9 A quiet riot: veganism as anti-capitalism and ecofeminist revolt in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian
Liz Mayo
10 Causal impotence and veganism: recent developments and possible ways forward
David Killoren
11 By any means of persuasion necessary: the rhetoric of veganism
Christopher Garland
1 2 Veganism and the U.S. legal system
Tim Phillips
13 Vegan studies in sociology
Elizabeth Cherry
14 Psychology and vegan studies
Adam Feltz and Silke Feltz
15 Vegan studies and food studies
Jessica Holmes
PART 3 Vegan studies in the disciplines: religion
16 Veganism and Christianity
Allison Covey
17 Yes, but is it Kosher? Varying religio-cultural perspectives on Judaism and veganism
Barry L. Stiefel
18 Veganism, Hinduism, and Jainism in India: a geo-cultural inquiry
Saurav Kumar
19 The interface between "identity" and "aspiration": reading the Buddhist teachings through a vegan lens
Joyjit Ghosh and Krishanu Maiti
20 Veganism and Islam
Magfirah Dahlan
PART 4 Theoretical engagements
21 A vegan ecofeminist queer ecological view of ecocriticism: a Costa Rican natureculture walk in literary/environmental studyland
Adriana Jiménez Rodríguez
22 Veganism in Critical Animal Studies: humanist and post-humanist perspectives
Jonathan Sparks-Franklin
23 Vegan studies and queer theory
Emelia Quinn
24 "You would betray your own mother for meat": a postcolonial vegan reading of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions
Sarah Rhu and Laura Wright
25 Radical recipe: veganism as anti-racism
Marilisa C. Navarro
26 Vegan studies and gender studies
Alex Lockwood
PART 5 Veganism in the media
27 Screening veganism: the production, rhetoric, and reception of vegan advocacy films
Alexa Weik von Mossner
28 (Mis)representing veganism in film and television
Matthew Cole and Kate Stewart
29 Merchandizing veganism
Simon C. Estok
30 "Friends don’t let friends eat tofu": a rhetorical analysis of fast food corporation "anti-vegan-options," advertisements
Erin Trauth
31 The vegan myth: the rhetoric of online anti-veganism
Carmen Aguilera-Carnerero and Margarita Carretero-González
PART 6 Vegan geographies
32 Vegan food tourism: experiences and implications
Francesc Fusté-Forné
33 Toward a new humanity: animal cruelty in China in light of COVID-19
Ruth Y.Y. Hung
34 Vegan geographies in Ireland
Corey Wrenn
Biography
Laura Wright is a professor in the Department of English at Western Carolina University, USA.
