The Gaze: The Companionship among the Colonized Animals

This paper explores the entangled reality of coloniality in the relationship between human and non-human animals, drawing on the insights of Jacques Derrida and Donna Haraway as well as the gaze of Beom in the Korean tradition. Derrida generates a profound rupture in the discussion of human and non-human animals where the problems of ability and passivity resurface through the symbolic actions of gazing and naming. Haraway expands on Derrida’s insights, advocating for an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates a more comprehensive understanding of animals. In furthering this discussion, I invite beom, Korean-origin big cats, to serve as a lens through which to explore animals and animality from a non-Western tradition and reveal the intersection among colonialism, Western imperial power, and the naming of species. Through the gaze of the beom, the notion of passivity in animality will be challenged by a deeper appreciation for the shared experience of living together.