This article develops the concept of animality studies as distinguished from animal studies. The former focuses on the cultural study of animals and animality, while the latter explores representations of animality and related discourses with an emphasis on advocacy for nonhuman animals’ welfare. This kind of methodological approach opens up a new space for critical work and leads to new insights in fields such as history of sexuality, the question of interactions between species, and the construction of the homosexual in social and medical discourses at the end of nineteenth century.
