Critical Anthropomorphism after #MeToo: Reading The Friend

Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel The Friend reveals the tension between anthropomorphism defined as naïve or arrogant projection and anthropomorphism as a critical intervention with stakes for intimacy, mourning, and anti-violence. Through close readings of The Friend and Coetzee’s Disgrace, which Nunez’s novel evokes, this essay argues for a critical anthropomorphism and shows, with Nunez, how it can become a means of relating non-violently to others in their differences, including the dead, animals, and women.