The politics of the human-dog relationship in Op ’n dag, ’n hond by John Miles

Abstract

This article investigates the way in which the human-dog relationship is presented in the novel Op ’n dag, ’n hond, by John Miles. The premise of this article is that the novel can be read from within theoretical framework of posthumanism, in which the embodied communalities of humans and animals (dogs) are emphasised. Despite the differences between the human and nonhuman animal, it is possible to constitute relationality, based on their shared physical mortality. The investigation will focus on the visual paradigm of the novel: the reciprocal view between dog and human, human and dog, which contradicts anthropocentricism and establishes an intersubjective relationship. The dog as guide embodies a moral agent that causes the teacher to look downward, into the underworld, as well as backward to the past. This, in turn, foregrounds the issues of loyalty and betrayal, and the balance between good and evil in a human life.

Keywords

• John Miles
• human-dog relationship
• posthumanism
• visual paradigm