Aesthetic Entanglements in the Age of the Anthropocene: A Posthuman Reading of Shaun Tan's Tales from the Inner City

Abstract

This article examines Shaun Tan's evocative Tales from the Inner City (2018) and explores how, through word and image, Tan questions the effects of the Anthropocene and the possible synergies and tensions between the human and more-than-human in his work, inviting us to look at human and animal relationships in new and challenging ways. To do so, I draw on concepts such as empathy and an ethics of care to question the privileged anthropocentrism of Western society and human exceptionalism over animals.