Rafi Youatt

Mar 12, 2024 | publicseminar.org | Rafi Youatt |Mitchell Abidor |Ihar Babkou |Karen Bakker

Heads of Cats and Dogs. Image credit: Jean-Baptiste Huet / Smithsonian open accessIn the (mildly) infamous opening pages of The Animal That Therefore I Am (2008), a text that has become central to animal studies, Derrida stands naked in front of his cat. This is not the figure of a cat, he says, nor an allegory of a cat—“believe me,” he implores the reader looking for a trap—but a real cat.