The Last Whip-poor-will: Representing Declining Non-Human Animals

• In Event: Entangled Species: Animals in Society Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

This presentation addresses representations of declining and absent non-human animals. Drawing on a chapter and the epilogue of my forthcoming book with NYU Press, the presentation follows nostalgic and solastalgic representations of Eastern Whip-poor-wills, a declining species of the eastern United States, in poetry and nature writing. As scholars of extinction studies have noted, grief and eco-grief tend to be the dominant frames for representing declining and lost species. My presentation shows how this frame has appeared in naturalistic and poetic presentations of Whip-poor-wills and the landscapes they once resided in. I also show how a multi-species form of grief over the loss of Whip-poor-wills extends to senses of place and culture. For many people, Whip-poor-wills are symbolically meaningful non-human animals, triggering nostalgic feelings about family, places, and rural life. The absence of the song of Whip-poor-wills fundamentally changes people’s relationships to place. The presentation will close by offering an alternative representation of the declining non-human species. Drawing on the epilogue of my book, I’ll emphasize the agency of non-human animals, as well the recognition of both presences and absences of non-human species on changing landscapes.

Author

• Jared Del Rosso, University of Denver