ZOÖCRITICISM:

(–pronounced zoh-oh-criticism–)
In literary/cultural studies, the analysis of the representations–and voices–of other animals in human discourse, often from an "animal-rights" political perspective (coined by Thomas C. Gannon, 2000). However, it denies the animal-rights association per se, in the firm knowledge that animals have–indeed, need–no "rights," which are ultimately the product of a homocentrically imposed imaginary. And although it can well be deemed a subset of ecocriticism, its founder is also chagrined at that association, given ecocriticism's usual emphasis on such abstractions as the environment, the "landscape," the ecosphere, and "Mother Earth," to the detriment of the actual other-species life forms of said environment–an ultimate erasure, one might say, of the individual House Sparrow and Thirteen-striped Ground Squirrel. (Professor Gannon has also proposed a term for his own particular animal interest, for the analysis of birds in literature–ornithicriticism; but he doesn't expect this term to ever become part of the popular parlance.)

[(Totally made-up) Source: (volume 3, page 1007 of . . .) A Short History of -ISMs to Recite at College Dorm Parties. Ed. I. Emma Byrd. 9 vol. Dumbshuck, NE: Whatsatmatta UP, 2006.]