Plastic Domestication: Reading Species Stories Through the Framework of Plasticity

Justyna Włodarczyk

doi:10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2026.17.13

Published: 2026-05-12

No. 1 (17) (2026)

Plastic Domestication: Reading Species Stories Through the Framework of Plasticity

Justyna Włodarczyk

Section: ARTICLES

https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2026.17.13

Abstract

This article examines plasticity as a theoretical lens for analyzing non-human animal narratives, focusing on popular animal fiction from the early twentieth century, especially Jack London’s wolf-dog novels. Plasticity – the capacity of organisms to be shaped by environmental pressures – has historically been used to construct species hierarchies, with dogs, particularly wolf-dogs, portrayed as the most plastic and adaptable. This framing often reinforces their ability to internalize human values, positioning canis familiaris as inherently defined by their bond with humans. While plasticity has traditionally upheld anthropocentric frameworks, this article argues that it also offers a means to challenge them. By reconsidering species stories through plasticity, it becomes possible to disrupt hierarchical assumptions and highlight animal agency within broader multispecies networks. This approach not only repositions dogs as active participants in ecological systems but also provides a methodology for disentangling them from human-centered narratives. It also conceptualizes canids as full-fledged subjects of environmental humanities scholarship.

Keywords:

plasticity , Jack London , wolf-dog , species stories , animal hybrids

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Włodarczyk, J. (2026). Plastic Domestication: Reading Species Stories Through the Framework of Plasticity. Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies, (1 (17), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2026.17.13

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Justyna Włodarczyk

j.wlodarczyk@uw.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8808-1583

Affiliation:

University of Warsaw Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Justyna Włodarczyk – associate professor and Director of the Institute of English Studies at the University of Warsaw. Her research interests include representations of nonhuman animals in literature and popular culture. She has devoted most of her publications to dogs and human–canine relations, approached from a variety of methodological perspectives. She is the author of Genealogy of Obedience: Reading American Dog Training Literature, 1850s–2000s (Brill, 2018). She has completed the project “Figurations of Interspecies Harmony” and is currently working on a research project titled “Animal Adaptations,” exploring film adaptations of literary animal characters. E-mail: j.wlodarczyk@uw.edu.pl.

No. 1 (17) (2026)
Published: 2026-07-08

ISSN: 2719-2687

eISSN: 2451-3849

10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA

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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Plastic Domestication: Reading Species Stories Through the Framework of Plasticity

Abstract

Keywords:

Justyna Włodarczyk

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