The Political Fate of Recomposed Bodies. The Circulation of Animals in Public Spaces
The politics of nature are being marked by new questions on the respective place to be accorded to an ever-growing and ever more diverse list of candidates for public debate. After not having been seen at all for over half a century, wolves reappeared in France in the early 1990s. Since then, a great many words have been spoken and countless views have been disseminated, which very quickly assumed the proportions of a veritable public controversy . But the flesh-and-blood animal has often remained invisible and elusive. This article examines the conditions for the possible public presence of wolves based on three different “corporal modes” for wolves : the whole body , the disseminated body and the reconstituted body . The article attempts to answer three questions : How are wolves avoiding measures used to control nature ? How are wolves making their presence known ? And how are they perceived by various publics ?