Human-Animal Bodies in The Blue Fox and CoDex 1962

Abstract

Animalistic renderings of human bodies have been criticised as a means of dehumanisation that reinforces damaging stereotypes of disability by transforming the individual into a less-than-human Other. In CoDex 1962 and Skugga-Baldur: Þjóðsaga (The Blue Fox), human-animal hybrids and metamorphoses highlight the biopolitics of both human and non-human life defined by social values and expectations. Yet, Sjón’s renderings of the human body in animal form do not perpetuate oppressive perspectives on non-human Others or disabled humans but instead draw attention to the sentience and humanity of the vulnerable body. Drawing on the intersections between critical disability studies and critical animal studies, this chapter argues that Sjón blurs the binaries between human and animal, normal and “abnormal,” healthy and ill, to illustrate a critical perspective on social discourses of the vulnerable body. Caught somewhere between freedom and oppression, Sjón’s characters harvest the potential of their vulnerable bodies to find in their more-than-human forms a means of escaping the constraints of the Anthropocene. With political, historical, and cultural significance, these transformative renderings highlight the vulnerable body as a form imbued with potential, autonomy, and agency.