The origins of these Poetics are, naturally, wildly overdetermined: my parents have taught me more than I realized; sitting in the company of cats has been more conducive to the mood of writing than I would ever have guessed. Barely a trace remains of my doctoral days, many moons ago, living on within this ‘first book’, yet I hope that Barbara Engh will enjoy these new constellations (while ‘that fox’ does not make any appearance, many other animals have now seized the day) and that Adrian Rifkin will still appreciate my ‘illegitimate use of figure’.
Huge thanks go to Liza Thompson and Lisa Goodrum at Bloomsbury for their enthusiastic shepherding of this book. Many elements of it were honed through presentations in various contexts (thanks to: Lisa Blackman, Nicholas Chare, Laura Cull, Carolin Eirich, Katve-Kaisa Konturri, Olga Koroleva, Pat Naldi, Tutta Palin, Henry Rogers, Undine Sellbach, Ika Willis, Joanna Zylinska). Eszter Timár deserves special mention since we encountered an array of rollicking hedgehogs on the tour of Budapest with which she welcomed me. Four chapters have been significantly revised and extended from previous incarnations. Chapter 2 first appeared as ‘Animal Melancholia: On the Scent of Dean Spanley’, in Animal Life & the Moving Image, Laura McMahon & Michael Lawrence, eds. Palgrave/BFI Publishing (2015): 134–52. Chapter 4 first appeared as ‘UnHoming Pigeons: The Postal Principle in Lynn Hershman-Leeson & Hussein Chalayan’ in Derrida Today, 5.1 (2012): 92–110. Chapter 5 first appeared as ‘When Species Kiss: Some Recent Correspondence between Animots’ in Humanimalia: A Journal of Human/Animal Interface Studies, 2:1 (2010): 60–85. Chapter 6 first appeared as ‘Tympan Alley: Posthumanist Performatives in Dancer in the Dark’, in Derrida Today, 6:2 (2013): 222–39. Chapters 4 and 5 benefitted from the support of the AHRC (Research Leave Scheme, 2007–8), responsible for the ‘research surprise’ that decisively reoriented my work.
Those who have published my work over the last ten years have offered invaluable advice and also been extremely welcome figures of support (Nicole Anderson, Ivan Callus, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Stefan Herbrechter, Tora Holmberg, Michael Lawrence, Laura McMahon, Simon Wortham, Manuela Rossini, Julian Wolfreys). To those who listened, heard, read, recognized, remarked, thank you: Ron Broglio, Lindsay Kelley, Vicki Kirby, Ted Geier, Johnny Golding, Helena Hunter, Elissa Marder, Dawne McCance, Jean Paul Martinon, Kelly Oliver, Silke Panse, Wood Roberdeau, Nicholas Royle, Astrid Schrader, Susan Schuppli, Undine Sellbach, Elina Staikou, Kari Weil, Sarah Wood, Cary Wolfe.
Of my former students, I especially thank Ruth Lipschitz, whose now postdoctoral thought continues to be instructive. Lastly, to those taking my ‘Sex Gender Species’ module at Goldsmiths, holding a space in which to allow theory to air the ludic and ludicrous as we find our way in these appalling times, thank you.