My Four Dogs: Urban Ecology in Vjeran Miladinović Merlinka’s Terezin sin
PDF

Keywords

urban ecology
animal
infrastructure
queer
( post- )Yugoslav literature

How to Cite

Filipović, A. (2022). My Four Dogs: Urban Ecology in Vjeran Miladinović Merlinka’s Terezin sin. Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, (22), 141–159. https://doi.org/10.14746/pss.2022.22.7

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the relations between humans, non-humans, and infrastructure in Vjeran Miladinović Merlinka’s fictionalized autobiography Terezin sin. I argue that queer humans and non-humans share a particular ontological and axiological space and time in urban ecology in relation to the built environment of cis-heteronormative socius grounded in reproductive heterosexuality.
The fictionalized autobiography that is explored in this article offers a particular view of minoritarian relation as it depicts a queer form of relationality that is lived sideways to the cis-heteronormativity and reproductive heterosexuality as an oppressive form of life that creates a specific kind of infrastructural intimacy for itself in the urban built environment. Relations between queer humans and
non-humans under these conditions are decidedly messy, as they are described as both caring and exploitative in Terezin sin.

https://doi.org/10.14746/pss.2022.22.7
PDF

References

Ahmed, S. ( 2006 ). Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822388074 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv125jk6w

Anand, N., Gupta, A., Appel, H. ( Eds. ). ( 2018 ). The Promise of Infrastructure. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002031

Arluke, A., Sanders, C. R. ( 1996 ). Regarding Animals. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Besson, F. et al. ( Eds. ). ( 2021 ). Reading Cats and Dogs: Companion Animals in World Literature. New York: Lexington Books.

Bilić, B. ( Ed. ). ( 2016 ). LGBT Activism and Europeanisation in the Post-Yugoslav Space. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57261-5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57261-5

Blagojević, J., Dimitrijević, O. ( Eds. ). ( 2014 ). Među nama: Neispričane priče gej i lezbejskih života. Beograd: Hartefakt Fond.

Campbell, A., Farrier, S. ( 2015 ). Queer Practice as Research: Fabulously Messy Business. “Theatre Research International” 40( 1 ), pp. 83–87. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883314000601 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0307883314000601

Chattopadhyay, S. ( 2012 ). Unlearning the City: Infrastructure in a New Optical Field. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816679317.001.0001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816679317.001.0001

Dadas, C. ( 2016 ). Messy Methods: Queer Methodological Approaches to Researching Social Media. “Computers and Composition” 40, pp. 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2016.03.007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2016.03.007

Dayan, C. ( 2016 ). With Dogs at the Edge of Life. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/daya16712 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/daya16712

Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. ( 1983 ). Anti-Oedipus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Elstein, D. ( 2003 ). The Social Construction of Species and The Moral Indefensibility of Speciesism. Haverford: Haverford College.

Filipović, A. ( 2019 ). We do not know what queers can do: LGBTQ community between ( in )visibility and culture industry in Serbia at the beginning of the 21st century. “Journal of Homosexuality” 66( 12 ), pp. 1693–1714. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1511133 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1511133

Filipović, A. ( 2021a ). Three bugs in the city: urban ecology and multispecies relationality in postsocialist Belgrade. “Contemporary Social Science” 16( 1 ), pp. 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2019.1667521 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2019.1667521

Filipović, A. ( 2021b ). Drag for everyone: Creative industries and the becoming-visible of drag in the 21st century Belgrade. “Sexualities.” https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607211019364. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607211019364

Francione, G. L. ( 2000 ). Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Francione, G. L. ( 2009 ). Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation. New York: Columbia University Press.

Gavrić, S., Čaušević, J. ( 2020 ). Od demedikalizacije do istopolnih brakova: Novija istorija homoseksualnosti i transrodnosti Zapadnog Balkana. Zagreb: Buybook.

Gillespie, K., Collard R.-C. ( Eds. ). ( 2015 ). Critical Animal Geographies: Politics, intersections, and hierarchies in a multispecies world. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315762760 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315762760

Graham, S., McFarlane, C. ( Eds. ). ( 2015 ). Infrastructural Lives: Urban infrastructure in context. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315775098 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315775098

Haraway, D. ( 2004 ). The Haraway Reader. New York: Routledge.

Haraway, D. ( 2008 ). When Species Meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Haraway, D. ( 2015 ). Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin. “Environmental Humanities” 6( 1 ), pp. 159–165. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3615934 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-3615934

Hinchliffe, S., Whatmore, S. ( 2008 ). Living Cities: Toward a Politics of Conviviality. In: Environment: Critical Essays in Human Geography. Eds. K. Anderson, B. Braun. Burlington: Ashgate, pp. 555–570. https://doi.org/10.4324 /9781315256351-24 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315256351-24

Holmberg, T. ( 2015 ). Urban Animals: Crowding in zoocities. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315735726 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315735726

Howell, P. ( 2015 ). At Home and Astray: The Domestic Dog in Victorian Britain. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.

Kendall-Morwick, K. ( 2021 ). Canis Modernis: Human/Dog Coevolution in Modernist Literature. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271088402 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271088402

Kirksey, E. ( 2010 ). The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography. “Cultural Anthropology” 25( 4 ), pp. 545–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2010.01069.x

Kirksey, E. ( 2014 ). The Multispecies Salon. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822376989 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822376989

MacCormack, P. ( 2020 ). The Ahuman Manifesto: Activism for the End of the Anthropocene. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350081130 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350081130

Massumi, B. ( 2014 ). What Animals Teach Us about Politics. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822376057 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822376057

Merlinka, V.M. ( 2013 ). Terezin sin: Autobiografija bez šminke. Beograd: Red Box.

Murphy, M. ( 2013 ). Chemical Infrastructures of the St. Clair River. In: Toxicants, Health and Regulation since 1945. Eds. S. Boudia, N. Jas. London: Pickering & Chatto, pp. 103–115. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315654645-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315654645-6

Skupština gradaBeograda. ( 2001 ). Odluka o uređenju i održavanju parkova, zelenih i rekreacionih površina. https://www.zelenilo.rs/images/Odluka_o_uredjenju_parkova_zelenih_i_rekreacionih_povrsina.pdf. (20.9.2021)

Stoekl, A. ( 2017 ). Urban Ecology. In: Fueling Culture: 101 Words for Energy and Environment. Eds. I. Szeman, J. Wenzel, P. Yaeger. New York: Fordham University Press, pp. 361–364. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1hfr0s3.100 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1hfr0s3.100

Swanson, H. A., Lien, M. E., Ween, G. B. ( 2018 ). Domestication Gone Wild: Politics and Practices of Multispecies Relations. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822371649 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822371649

Wallen, M. ( 2017 ). Whose Dog Are You?: The Technology of Dog Breeds and the Aesthetics of Modern Human-Canine Relations. Ann Arbor: Michigan State University Press. https://doi.org/10.14321/j.ctt1qqhfqs DOI: https://doi.org/10.14321/j.ctt1qqhfqs

Wilson, A. ( 2016 ). The Infrastructure of Intimacy. “Signs: Journal of Women and Society” 41( 2 ), pp. 247–280. https://doi.org/10.1086/682919 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/682919

Yates, J. ( 2017 ). Of Sheep, Oranges, and Yeast: A Multispecies Impression. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.