For thousands of years, in the myths and folktales of people around the world, animals have spoken in human tongues. Western and non-Western literary and folkloric traditions are filled with both speaking animals, some of whom even narrate or write their own autobiographies.

Introduction Part I: (Mis) Representing Animals: The Limits and Possibilities of Representation 1. What Do We Want from Talking Animals? Reflections on Literary Representations of Animal Voices and Minds Karla Armbruster 2. Our Animals, Ourselves: Representing Animal Minds in Timothy and The White Bone Ryan Hediger 3. Investigations of a Dog, by a Dog: Between Anthropocentrism and Canine-Centrism Naama Harel Part II: Animals in Human Traditions 4. With Dogs and Lions as Witnesses: Speaking Animals in the History of Christianity Laura Hobgood-Oster 5. The Speaking Animal: Non-Human Voices in Comics Lisa Brown 6. Who'll Let the Dogs In? Animals, Authorship, and the Library Catalog Nancy Babb Part III: Animal Self, Human Self 7. Mistresses as Masters: Voicing Female Power Through the Subject Animal in Two Nineteenth-Century Animal Autobiographies Monica Flegel 8. Catster.com: Creating Feline Identities Online Jennifer L. Schally and Stephen R. Couch 9. Identity, Community and Grief: The Role of Bunspace in Human and Rabbit Lives Margo DeMello Part IV: Interspecies Communication and Connection 10. Talking Dogs, Companion Capital, and the Limits of Bio-Political Fitness Merit Anglin 11. If We Could Talk to the Animals: On Changing the (Post) Human Subject Kathy Rudy Part V: Speaking and Knowing: Accessing Animal Subjectivity 13. The Power of Testimony: The Speaking Animal's Plea for Understanding in a Selection of Eighteenth-Century British Poetry Anne Milne 14. "Straight from the Horse's Mouth": Equine Memoirs and Autobiographies Marion Copeland 14. First Friend, First Words: Speaking of/to Talking Dogs Jill Morstad Part VI: The Ethics and Value of Speaking for Animals 15. Horse Talk: Horses and Human(e) Discourses Natalie Corinne Hansen 16. Speaking For Dogs: The Role of Dog Biographies in Improving Canine Welfare in Bangkok, Thailand Nikki Savvides 17. The Elephant Letters: The Story of Billy and Kani G.A. Bradshaw