Dogs as new protagonists of contemporary narrative

Recently, the “animal turn” It was a trend increasingly talked about in the social sciences. This is a growing academic interest Relationships between humans and other animalsabout the role and status of animals in society from new terms. One of the most widely used books in this context was What would animals say if we asked them the right questions?by the Belgian philosopher Vinciane Despretreleased in the country by the Cactus label. It is very interesting how he uses concrete examples to question everything that has to do with the animal world: from the position of our observation position to the construction of a human self that is alien to nature.

The boom has not stopped growing and in particular draws attention to the fact that the culture tends to be particularly interested in an animal that is considered man’s best friend. From films to television series, video games or comics, Dogs have always been part of cultural products. creep into public discussion. Without going any further, the dogs of current President Javier Milei and his predecessor Alberto Fernández have been the source of a flood of news. Especially the secret of the famous Conan.

Out of My dog ​​Tulipfrom JR Ackerley until Dobermanfrom Gustavo FerreyraDogs and literature have formed a frequent pairing. In Kaidu (Tusquets), Paula Perez AlonsoThe relationship with the dog of the title is not metaphorical: it is an emotional pact that keeps the protagonist in a territory of silence and disagreement. Think about the animal way of perceiving the world. The friendfrom the American Sigrid Nuneztells of a close friendship with a Great Dane that won him the National Book Award, which only lasted after its owner’s suicide. The dog, in this case, becomes a lighthouse walking through grief and thinking about what will be left of us when what we loved disappears.

Another interesting title that also focuses on a dog is The bitch (Random House), from Colombian Pilar Quintana. The plot centers on Damaris, a woman who spends her days in the depths of the Pacific with Rogelio, her partner. For years their relationship was characterized by the unsuccessful search for a child. Suddenly, in the depths of despair, life offers him a new chance by adopting a dog.

In times that many describe as inhumane, it is striking – perhaps paradoxical? – that books are proliferating in which tenderness, companionship and interspecific closeness take a central place. Will there be an answer? Looking for protection? Or simply a way to name what we can’t yet articulate about ourselves?

This year, the publishing industry has once again deepened the connection between dogs and books. One of the most striking starts was The Great Danefirst novel by the writer and visual artist Corina Bistritsky. Published by Almadía, it tells the story of a recently separated young woman who is a little lost in life and longs to be a writer, and one day suddenly meets a giant Great Dane who ends up changing her life.

It is very well shown how the dog can contain both tenderness and the inexplicable, the most unfathomable otherness. The bond that arises between them is simple and at the same time very important: a company that does not oblige, that does not demand, but that changes. The novel suggests—without ever fully stating it—that tenderness can occur even in the least spectacular places.

The publishing brand also published a conference by the French philosopher and teacher Helene Cixous titled Love of animals. There the author, winner of the 2025 Formentor Prize, is sent off with a series of anecdotes about her pets that lead her to try to understand animal sensitivity and reconcile it with humans. “When I write, I become a kind of animal,” he reveals.

I still have something to say from Florencia Gomez Garcia (Economic Culture Fund), written as a diary, the protagonist, her cocker dog Samuel, and Rosa, a mysterious woman she meets at a spa, cross paths. “When Rosa stopped talking about the housing problem, I asked her if she wanted to stay with Samuel and me for a few days, and she said yes,” she notes, beginning the adventure in a tone more associated with humor, sarcasm, and older adult women’s narrative, which, congratulations, is becoming more and more prominent in literature.

These books also resonate with broader discussions. The philosopher Donna Haraway He spoke of “companion species” to view the coexistence of humans and animals as a mutually constitutive process. Despret suggests that animals force us to think differently and expand the field of possibility. In this theoretical framework, dog stories are no longer read as simple metaphors: they are living essays about living together in the world.

The truth is that this literary wave offers no solutions. It suggests looks, time and breathing together. The dogs that inhabit these pages sit next to us and demand nothing more than attention. And in this silent presence they force us to ask what remains of sensitivity when everything around us invites us to harden. So perhaps literature is not just about animals, but about us.

“What did you see there in the islands when you pricked up your ears?” asked the poet of Entre Ríos. Juan L. Ortiz in this beautiful poem he dedicated to Preste, his greyhound. “Poor dogs / We have repeated / that they die before us, / They go into episodes that even they do not understand. / And they leave behind this strange memory that is neither tragic nor comic,” wrote another poet, Laura Wittner, trying to encode the mystery in verse.

New questions arise: Why now? Why in this context, riddled with public anger, tense speeches and politicians turning their animals into an identity or even a performative gesture? What does this love for dogs mean in a present where other forms of care are rare? There may not be a single answer. Perhaps these works function as reflections of concerns that we cannot yet name.