Contact Zones, Becoming and the Wild Animal Body

Abstract

Michael Lundblad (2009) has recently called for an “animality studies” reading of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903), contending that this approach to this well-known text would reveal “a more complex, unsettled and inconsistent engagement with the question of the animal and constructions of the human than we might otherwise assume” (p. 498). Echoing the politics of stereotype endured by Black Beauty and other equines, London’s sled dogs are burdened with not only Western civilization’s assumptions about their species, but also our assumptions about wolves as the embodiment of both wildness and wilderness, which London himself was essential in establishing. While Lundblad’s examination focuses on the relationship of animality and sexuality in particular, it nevertheless correctly identifies a general oversight in critical analyses of London’s canine canon. These works include The Call of the Wild, “Bâtard” (1904), White Fang (1905), and his often-overlooked nonfiction ode to sled dogs, “Husky — The Wolf Dog of the North” (1900). This analysis, however, can be expanded to include filmic adaptations of London’s writing, including both those that adhere closely to the source text and those which omit the main human characters and the plot, to borrow only the setting and the dog.