Backward/Forward: Thalia Field’s Metanarratives

Thalia Field’s Bird Lovers, Backyard takes at its starting point the awareness that any attempt to represent the nonhuman has to account for the ways in which the existing forms of mediation determine the nature and scope of stories about animals. This awareness introduces a supplementary layer in storytelling, which transforms the narrative. Instead of telling stories about animals, a metanarrative such as Bird Lovers, Backyard is a montage and reworking of a wide range of existing forms of narrative as well as a critical engagement with the works and authors that exemplify them.