The Representations of Animals and Vegetarianism in the Work of Herman Heijermans and his Contemporaries

Abstract

Herman Heijermans (1864-1924) is a well-known Dutch playwright and socialist. In my lecture I deal with the question what representations of animals are present in his works and to what extent he reflects vegetarianism that has appeared to be a hot topic at his time.

Using the perspectives of literary animal studies, speciesism and carnism, I contrast his representations with those of his socialist contemporaries (such as Frederik van Eeden, Cornelie Huygens and others).

Keywords

• Herman Heijermans
• socialism
• literary animal studies
• speciesism
• carnism