Author Identifier
Tiffany Hastie: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9996-7745
Date of Award
2026
Keywords
Animal, nonhuman, speculative fiction, ibis, ecoplacement, decentring, literature, climate change, anthropocene, anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism, centring animals
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
School
School of Arts and Humanities
First Supervisor
Donna Mazza
Second Supervisor
Debra Dudek
Abstract
Animal characters have always featured in human storytelling but contemporary umwelt research in animal studies leads creative writers who represent animal perspectives to push their practice towards more embodied and immersive research methods. Current increases in climate anxiety correlate with an increase of animal perspectives in literature but these depictions often reinforce an Anthropocentric viewpoint reducing animal stories to human allegory rather than a verisimilitude of the animal’s life. This research considers new ways to write animal perspectives that centre the animal through decentring the human and, in doing so, bring recognition to the importance of all lives and viewpoints in the Anthropocene. Decentring the human includes decentring human characters from the narrative and decentring the writer using a developed practice of ‘Ecoplacement’ that acknowledges writing as a bodily act and that the environment in which a story is written affects the writing process and the creative writing produced. Ecoplacement, immersive writing from inside an animal’s habitat, was undertaken by the researcher to create an animal story based upon sensory experience of existing alongside the Australian White Ibis in the Wonnerup wetlands from the Malbup Bird Hide in south-western Australia. The novel produced, Eye of the Ibis, strove to represent in an ethical way both the inner and outer worlds of the often-denigrated Australian White Ibis.
Access Note
Access to this thesis is embargoed until 30th May 2031
Recommended Citation
Hastie, T. (2026). Eye of the ibis and only their voices: Decentring the human in nonhuman fiction. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/4k4z-zh95