1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910788354103321

Autore

Song Hoon

Titolo

Pigeon trouble : bestiary biopolitics in a deindustrialized America / / Hoon Song

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2010

ISBN

0-8122-2270-9

1-283-89103-4

0-8122-0009-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (269 pages)

Classificazione

CC 7266

Disciplina

179/.3

Soggetti

Animal rights activists - Pennsylvania

Pigeon shooting - Moral and ethical aspects - Pennsylvania

Pigeon shooting - Political aspects - Pennsylvania

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Cruelty through Glassy Eyes -- Chapter Two. Gloved Love -- Chapter Three. Hooliganism -- Chapter Four. Pests and Outcasts -- Chapter Five. Mimesis and Conspiracy Theory -- Chapter Six. Representationalism's Animal Other -- Chapter Seven. The Line of Flight, Out of Bird Phobia -- Conclusion. Self-Reflexivity and Finite Thinking -- Notes -- References -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

Pigeon Trouble chronicles a foreign-born, birdphobic anthropologist's venture into the occult craft of pigeon shooting in the depths of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal country. Though initially drawn by a widely publicized antipigeon shoot protest by animal rights activists, the author quickly finds himself traversing into a territory much stranger than clashing worldviews-an uncanny world saturated with pigeon matters, both figuratively and literally. What transpires is a sustained meditation on self-reflexivity as the author teeters at the limit of his investigation-his own fear of birds. The result is an intimate portrayal of the miners' world of conspiracy theory, anti-Semitism, and whiteness, all inscribed one way or another by pigeon matters, and seen through the anguished eyes of a birdphobe. This bestiary



experiment through a phobic gaze concludes with a critique on the visual trope in anthropology's self-reflexive turn. An ethnographer with a taste for philosophy, Song writes in a distinctive descriptive and analytical style, obsessed with his locale and its inhabitants, constantly monitoring his own reactions and his impact on others, but always teasing out larger implications to his subject.