[Review] DeVries, Scott M. Creature Discomfort: Fauna-criticism, Ethics and the Representation of Animals in Spanish American Fiction and Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Critical Animal Studies, 4. 328pp.

Scott M. DeVries’ exhaustive overview of Spanish American Literature serves as a substantial introduction to Spanish American literature in relation to Critical Animal Studies and what DeVries terms Traditional Animal Studies. Motivated by the lack of Spanish American literature featuring in animal studies, his survey convinces of the richness of this literature. The neologism ‘fauna-criticism’ is underpinned by TAS and CAS for their ‘ethical advocacy in defense of nonhumans’ and for their theorising about animals which generates a ‘proper understanding’ of animals (25). The term is intended to avoid the ‘slippages of meaning’ (32) and the ‘baggage’ that has accrued to other terms like liberationism, animal rights or animal studies, terms which may have become contradictory and problematic