The mystical and the mundane: the human/animal distinction in Animal Parade

ABSTRACT

This essay is a response to Christopher Collins’ “Animal Parade.” The author reflects on the productive ambiguity in Collins’ representation of non-human animals, and offers preliminary thoughts on the relationship between performance and mysticism in a posthumanist context.

KEYWORDS:

• “Animal Parade”
• posthumanism
• performance
• animals
• mysticism

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the organizers, participants, and attendees of the 2017 Patti Pace Performance Festival, at Louisiana State University, for the opportunity to audience and respond to a version of this performance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.