Companion Species Versus Traumatized Pet in *White God*

White God showcases how the connections between humans and dogs can torture and nurture both species. Ultimately, though, it offers a way to build relationships based on Haraway’s companion species ideal instead of either pampering or torture. The opening title quotation from Rainer Maria Rilka establishes the primary argument of the horror drama White God (2014): “Everything terrible is something that needs our love.” To support its claim, however, White God demonstrates how horrific mistreatment may also create the terrible, turning a house pet into a feral hyper-intelligent revolutionary menace.

Set in an alternate Budapest, the film’s conflicts begin when Hungary sets a severe tax on those who own mixed breed dogs, so pedigree and purebreds will be favored. To avoid the tax, mixed breed owners dump them on the streets or in overcrowded animal shelters. The film’s production notes argue the film serves as “a stark, beautiful metaphor for the political and cultural tensions sweeping contemporary Europe.” But its focus on one mixed breed dog’s responses to a lifeless urban environment and the hostile situations he experiences after abandonment by his young owner’s cruel father also suggest an expanded view of eco-trauma may be warranted. In White God, mixed breed Hagen battles urban ecological catastrophes and eco-trauma that transform him from loving pet to vengeance seeking monster.

For Anil Narine, eco-trauma is a product of the ecological catastrophes that “confront us directly, as experiences, or indirectly, as images circulating in the media” (1). Narine suggests, “these events tend to confound us and even paralyze us politically and psychologically” (1). Psychologist Tina Amorok argues that ideally, humans experience lives that are interconnected with others and the natural world. But, Amorok suggests, “The experience of interconnectedness contains paradox, for we sense not just the profound beauty of life but also the pandemic of human violence and the existential anxiety that it causes” (29). Our responses to the eco-trauma this dilemma causes may be violent, Amorok declares, and include

separation ideologies and practices (war, religious fanaticism, racism, and sexism), psychological defense mechanisms (denial, dissociation, psychic numbing), and an array of debilitating behaviors and responses that bear the signature of trauma, ranging from depression, anxiety, and addictive lifestyles to violence toward self, others, and nature. (29)

White God illustrates how a domesticated dog reacts with similar violence when facing eco-trauma and urban ecological catastrophes associated with it.

Dogs and Eco-Trauma: The Making of a Monster in White God Part I

After adopting several rescue dogs, all of whom suffered abuse and neglect, it comes as 

no surprise to us that both human and nonhuman animals may suffer the consequences 

of eco-trauma. As part of human society, dogs may also be traumatized by a toxic 

environment. As cultural critic David R. Shumway asserts, “pets … ought to be 

understood as elements of a healthy human society” (272). According to Shumway, 

“if humans have typically lived in a mixed community with animals, then our definition 

of ‘society’ should be expanded to reflect the fact that not all of the subjects to whom 

we relate are human” (272). As noted ecocritic Anil Narine suggests, “a traumatized

earth begets traumatized people” (13), but a traumatized earth may also negatively affect 

other species. 

Films highlighting dogfighting reveal much about the complex connections between 

humans and their dogs. In this presentation, we argue that by exposing the abuse dogs 

endure during cruel training for and violent assaults in the dogfight ring, the fictional 

film White God(2015) powerfully demonstrates the repercussions of mistreatment in 

a toxic environment: eco-trauma. But it also offers a solution: love.

White God suggests a traumatized earth may also traumatize the pets we love, especially 

in an urban setting. The opening of White Godhighlights the consequences of such 

environmental trauma. A long shot reveals a starkly empty silent Budapest street where 

thirteen-year-old Lili (Zsófia Psotta) rides her bike across a deserted bridge. The music 

is quiet as she passes an abandoned car and bus, suggesting a forced escape for their 

passengers. Cutting to a city street as she continues to bike, an enormous pack of dogs 

runs up behind and past her, as if responding to the trumpet in her backpack. This 

opening scene ends with a flashback to Lili playing with her dog Hagen to underpin 

the dramatic change trauma has produced in this once happy house pet.

When her mother leaves for three months to Australia, Lili and Hagen’s lives are disrupted 

when they are forced to move in with Lili’s meat inspector father Daniel (Sándor Zsótér), 

who lives in a small and insular apartment building. In this traumatic ecology, a neighbor 

(Erika Bodnár) reports illegal mixed breed ownership to authorities, claiming Hagen bit 

her. Canine officers warn Lili and her father they must pay a heavy state tax and register 

the mixed breed or lose him. Forced to sleep in a closed bathroom, Hagen howls. Only 

Lili’s trumpet can calm him. When Lili sneaks Hagen into her band rehearsal and disturbs 

the practice, her director throws them out. In retaliation, Lili’s father casts Hagen out of 

their car in the middle of a crowded avenue and drives off. His actions catalyze the series 

of traumatic experiences that nearly condemn Hagen to death. 

Ultimately, White God illustrates the similarities between humans and dogs. 

Both species respond positively to love, and negatively to cruelty. 

In White God,the hope is that love may counter the environmental trauma humanity creates.

EVFF EIU Student Film Festival Call for Submissions

The first weeks of school: Invitation to our Eastern Illinois Writing Project Institute Day

It's been a busy few weeks. I know that's an understatement, so I'm going to post a press release for our EIWP Institute Day:

Teachers, administrators and interested students are invited to attend the Eastern Illinois Writing Project Fall Institute Day Friday, October 12, 2018 on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

The Eastern Illinois Writing Project will present the annual institute day, titled “Authentic Literacy Assessment Across Disciplines and Grades” from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The 2018 Institute Day will focus on assessment and evaluation and highlight ways to authentically assess reading and writing across disciplines and grade levels in relation to the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. Teachers from across disciplines and grade levels will share teaching ideas in multiple breakout sessions, maintaining a “teachers teaching teachers” model to creatively meet the Common Core Standards.

To highlight this interdisciplinarity across grade levels, we are also pleased to announce our two keynote speakers, ROE Professional Development Coordinator, Katie O’Dell, and Professor of English Terri Fredrick.

Their interactive workshop will describe effective feedback and provide strategies for assessing students' writing effectively.

Terri Fredrick is a professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, where she teaches a range of courses, including one on Evaluating Students' Writing. She also publishes and presents on assessment of students' writing across disciplines.

Katie O'Dell is the Professional Development Coordinator at the Regional Office of Education #11. She also serves as the Area Coordinator for the English Language Arts Foundational Services grant and has presented several workshop sessions in the Balanced Assessment and ELA area. 

The Institute Day will also include teacher-driven presentations and workshops that allow both attendees and presenters to share effective ideas and confer with one another, emphasizing the belief that the best teachers of teachers are other teachers.

Workshops will include “Getting Gritty With It: Developing a Mindset for Success!,” “Google, Breakouts, and Scavenger Hunts,” “Using Digital Stories to Meet CCSS,” and “Writing to Learn in a Writing Across the Curriculum World.” These workshops will help teachers better meet their students’ literacy needs across the curriculum and grade levels, facilitating ways for students to explore argument writing at every stage of the writing process.

Our Institute Day will end with a catered luncheon and a Post Conference Luncheon Conversation. Please bring your questions and ideas from the keynote straight into this follow-up conversation. Here we can discuss some of the assessment and evaluation tools in more detail, connect more directly to your classroom practice, and look at more examples of student work. You will help make this session happen, so please come prepared to interact, learn some more, and create your own argument writing resources.

Participants can earn up to five Continuing Professional Development Units toward teacher certification renewal. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is now open at https://castle.eiu.edu/easternnwp/machform/view.php?id=1232. The registration deadline is Oct. 9.

For more information or to inquire about being a presenter at the conference, please contact EIWP Director Robin Murray at rlmurray@eiu.edu.