Unlearning Anthropocentrism: Animal Subjectivity and Posthuman Pedagogy in R. K. Narayan’s A Tiger for Malgudi

Abstract

This paper examines R. K. Narayan’s A Tiger for Malgudi through the framework of posthumanist pedagogy. Narayan decentres anthropocentric narratives by granting its animal protagonist, Raja, a self-aware and reflective voice. This paper examines how, through Raja’s life story, Narayan reimagines human–animal relationships by rejecting instrumentalisation and promoting a model of companionship that transcends hierarchical structures. This paper explores how Narayan reveals that a wild animal circus is one of the most extreme manifestations of speciesism, where human cruelty, colonisation and the unnatural exploitation of the wild are on display. It examines questions of ethics and animal rights in the novel and points out their significance in environmental education. It examines how the novel upholds the idea of a symbiosis rather than hierarchy and dominance. This paper involves a close textual reading and focuses on critical posthumanism. It emphasises the importance of acknowledging that animals are sentient beings with agency and experiences and are thus not simply objects of human use and exploitation. In this sense, a posthumanist pedagogical approach leads to a learning process that is more empathic and ethical in nature as humans learn to see themselves not as separate from or superior to animals, but as participants in an interconnected more-than-human world.