An introduction to the volume.

Leo Tolstoy’s essay, The First Step (Первая ступень) written in 1891, is a multi-dimensional text whose purpose was not only to try to convert people to the righteous path of living through consistently followed restraint and self-control over one’s desires, but its author also encouraged people – in a rather convincing way – to become vegetarians. Tolstoy claimed that meat-free diet closely relates to healthy nutrition and consi­derably limits or even eliminates the suffering of animals being slaughtered on a mass scale for consumption in pain and death factories, as he referred to mechanised slaughterhouses. Using naturalistic images, the writer describes horrifying scenes he witnessed at the abattoir in Tula. The text is filled with drastic imagery, sounds and foul odours wafting from the slaughterhouse and the vision of inhumane practices of butchers, young and old, devoid of any sympathy towards the animals being killed. In hindsight it must be regretfully noted that Tolstoy’s essay has not changed people’s dietary habits and vegetaria­nism has not managed to supplant the traditional, mostly meat-based menu.

The article provides a philosophical basis for the actors influencing the decision to change the lifestyle to a vegan one. The author has determined that these factors include: (1) first of all, being consistent with the principle characteristic of deep ecology, according to which the life of each subject (including, of course, human) is the occurring or final value, and (2) a level of emotional intelligence, especially empathy. The author also considers one of the more serious moral dilemma that vegans face, which she has termed the dilemma of deep ecology.

Lori Gruen and Robert C. Jones propose a binary typology of veganism, distinguishing two of its forms: aspirational and identity veganism. They point to one of them as preferred – aspirational veganism. It seems particularly interesting, but doubts arise as to the justification for its use, at least in the way proposed by the authors. Despite the accuracy of many of Gruen’s and Jones’ observations, the adopted terminology in the case of the second element of the typology, identity veganism, is not immune to criticism, either. This article, asking about the limits of veganism, critically analyzes the classification of vegan attitudes proposed by the authors.

The aim of the article is to present the paradigm related to vegan sociology and its research area. The author introduces the roots of vegan socio­logy, discusses the topics raised in the empirical and theoretical research and presents the International Association of Vegan Sociologists, detailing the activities undertaken in the collective and research conducted by the participating indivi­duals. Next, the directions and hopes related to the future of vegan sociology and the possibilities for the actual development of this sub-discipline are indicated.

With growing popularity of plant-based diets, some vegans try to apply this way of nutrition to the animals of which they take care. It is easy to imagine that the main motivation to do so is the willingness to save lives of the animals that would be killed and processed into food for companion animals. Feeding companion animals may be distressing to vegan persons, who make a lot of effort in order to eliminate animal products from both their diet and everyday use. Feeding carnivores with plant-based food is a controversial practice and raises a lot of ethical, biological and legal questions. Do humans have the right to limit non-human animals’ diet and take their agency away by forcing them to eat what is available? What kind of physiological consequences may forcing plan-based diet cause? Is it legal to restrict carnivores from eating food that would
be their natural diet? How to support vegans in preventing discomfort from feeding animals with animal products? Is it possible to maintain welfare of companion animals if they cannot eat natural food? Those are some of the questions to be addressed in the text.

When observing the development of the vegan market, one can start to wonder to what extent this constitutes the consumption of an idea and to what extent the idea itself has become a commodity. Bearing in mind the market importance of veganism, the article refers to such concepts as commodity (as defined by Karl Marx) and symbolic consumption, and draws attention to the marketization of rebellion (understood here as opposing the dominant culture of carnivores). The characteristics of the consumer society (defined by Zygmunt Bauman) are also presented. Kat Von D, who is an American celebrity and vegan, serves as an example of combining veganism and commercialism. The article also refers to the issue of acceptance of commercial enterprises that can contribute to the creation of a vegan world, as well as the market significance of veganism itself in the 21st century.

The topic of voluntary refraining from eating meat is present in two most important novels of Reymont: The Peasants and The Promised Land. In the former vegetarianism is practiced by Roch, who is an itinerant teacher and a promoter of Polish patriotism among the villagers. In the latter the factory owner, Bucholc, seeks treatment in a vegetarian diet prescribed by doctor Hamerstein.

This article analyses excerpts from the novel in which the resignation from meat is mentioned. A comparative reading allows to notice the diversity of reasons for which Reymont’s characters practice vegetarianism. In the case of Bucholc, his only motivation seems to be the necessity to recover from his health issues. But reasons of Roch’s vegetarianism are more complicated. Tadeusz Budrewicz suggested that it might result from Roch’s belonging to Mariavite Church, which was promoting meatless diet.

This article also explores Reymont’s biography and its vegetarian motifs. He was a friend of Józef Drzewiecki, a doctor promoting veganism, who might have been an inspiration for Hamerstein. Vegetarianism was also popular among some political groups as a way to rebuild the Polish nation spiritually and physically. This might have been a reason standing behind the Roch’s abstaining from eating meat.

In Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee the protagonist, in spite of being a popular writer, seems to be misunderstood and unaccepted as a result of her strict views on treating animals and eating meat. Her controversial opinions are supported with suggestive arguments and intellectual considerations which impress not only the audience but also Elizabeth’s son, who works at the university that hosts his mother. The arguments and comparisons used by Costello in her lectures always evoke interest of the audience. The variety of realms Elizabeth Costello applies in her speeches allows the readers to develop a multifaceted view on the issue of eating meat and above all, the treatment of animals. The aim of the article is to discuss the views and the discourse of the prota­gonist of the novel which she applies to make an impact on the audience. 

The aim of this article is to present how Tiziano Scarpa promotes the ideas of vegetarianism and veganism as well as interspecies dialogue in his novel La penultima magia. The author proposes an ecocritical reading that will allow to track down the textual values of the human-animal relationship. In the first part the author considers the legitimacy of raising animals for food. The second part focuses on the idea of veganism.

The world’s first Vegetarian Society was founded in 1847 in England. Its founding declaration stated that members could not eat “flesh, fowl or fish”. As for eggs, milk, cheese, butter and honey, members were left free to choose. It was also up to their discretion whether to use alcohol, tobacco, stimulants such as coffee or tea, or clothing and materials of animal origin. This wide-ranging approach allowed for the inclusion of vegetarians of various kinds, but inevitably also led to controversy and disputes about what it actually 
meant to be a vegetarian. At the end of the 19th century these internal ideological conflicts intensified
due to the appearance of new products that were “purely” plant-based – substitutes for milk, meat and leather – all of which extended the options for a vegan lifestyle. This article discusses both the ideological and the material dimensions behind the emergence and the development of the vegetarian movement in the second half of the 19th century, and traces the birth of 20th-century veganism.

Publications on the cultural history of veganism, insightful and inclusive as they are, give the impression that it has been experienced and narrated by adults only and that children have had no part in it. The article challenges this assumption by postulating to include children’s accounts in the cultural history of meatless diets. Given the importance of first-person narratives for analyzing the processes of identity formation, the author proposes to delineate and undergo a detailed reading of the repository of vegan autobiographies and introduce children’s voices into it. Undertaking a study of the historical dimension of children’s first-person narratives, the author looks at the 19th-century vegetarian periodicals for children and brings to light their voices and experiences.