Genres
Xenofiction
A niche speculative-fiction genre of stories told from the viewpoint of non-human characters, particularly animals, on their own terms.
Xenofiction is a niche genre of speculative fiction centered on stories told from the viewpoint of non-human characters, particularly animals. Unlike the fable or Animal Farm, where animals stand in for humans, xenofiction genuinely tries to inhabit the non-human mind: its characters may have human-like intelligence, but their societies, thought processes and senses are completely unfamiliar to a human reader, and humans often appear only as plot devices, monsters or threats. Black Beauty (1877) is considered the first true xenofiction, and Watership Down (1972), whose rabbits carry their own culture and Lapine language, is the defining work.
The genre's craft problem is linguistic: how to be true to another creature's experience when the medium is human language, balancing enough anthropomorphism for empathy against preserving the animal's essential otherness. That makes it an extreme test of worldbuilding and of choosing point of view: every sensation must pass through senses the reader does not have.