Animals in Literature: From Fables and Symbols to Allegory and Ethics

Send us Fan MailIn 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 Animal00:30 Why Animals in Stories02:03 Origins of Animal Tales02:52 Aesop and Moral Types05:40 Pancha Tantra Politics08:15 Nineteenth Century Symbols08:58 Moby Dick White Whale11:54 Poe and Projected Grief15:02 Animal Farm Allegory17:48 The Jungle and Industry19:36 Lord of the Flies Beast20:57 Modern Rethinking Animals21:23 Life of Pi and Meaning23:55 Tricksters and Resistance25:17 New Nature Writing Now25:44 What It All Means28:36 Closing and Farewellhttps://www.instagram.com/resilientanimal/https://www.facebook.com/TheResilientAnimalhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/association-for-human-animal-bond-studies/