Howls and Whispers: Animal Subjectivity, Human Grief, and Decolonial Kinship in Canadian Francophone Fiction

Abstract

As scholars debate the ethics of the "animal turn," indigenous voices expressing multispecies kinship for decades remain underappreciated in Canadian Francophone literary scholarship. This study examines innovative zoopoetic techniques employed by André Alexis and Naomi Fontaine to decolonize emotional paradigms and reorganize interspecies ethics. We analyze Fifteen Dogs (2015) and Manikanetish (2017) through three theoretical frameworks: zoopoetics theory, affective neuroscience, and decolonial affect theory. Using comparative textual analysis, we investigate animal narrative agency and challenge anthropocentrism. Alexis reveals human cognitive limitations through canine perception, while Fontaine, drawing on Innu ontologies, emphasizes reciprocal relationships and animal agency. Their contrasting approaches to grief—individual ownership versus communal ecological survival—redefine ecological ethics. This research demonstrates how Canadian Francophone literature contributes to conversations about multispecies justice and indigenous sovereignty in the Anthropocene. The novelty lies in triangulating experimental literary form, neuroscientific frameworks, and indigenous land-based wisdom to illuminate how these narratives challenge Western epistemic violence. Our findings show that these texts create innovative models of interspecies coexistence that move beyond anthropocentric paradigms, offering critical insights for environmental humanities and decolonial studies.