AustLit

'Writers commonly use animism to transform inanimate objects into assertive ‘things’, in possession of metaphysical qualities. In theorising the effects of applying literary animism to a real historical artefact, this study asserts that once enlivened, an artefact can die twice. It dies once with its real-world destruction and a second time when that destruction echoes through its literary thingness. The discussion is framed by examining the history of literary animism. This includes the eighteenth-century itnarrative with animal and object narrators, the transition to children’s literature, and the resistance to animism that accompanies modern fiction, in this case, particularly Joanne Harris’s Blackberry Wine. Further, it examines the alignment that has emerged between children’s literature and true story as a basis for applying animism to artefacts in nonfiction, facilitating their dual-death.' (Publication abstract)