ALT A round table with five upholstered metal chairs. One chair sits separate, facing the rest. Light pours in from a window opposite the camera. This is the room in which my defense took place, photographed two hours before the defense began.

ALT Me and my partner Sarah. I'm in the throne-like chair at The Publick House in a burgundy suit, brown tortoiseshell glasses, brown hair past shoulder length, and a beard with a long moustache. Sarah leans in from the viewer's right in a burgundy sweater with a gray(?) scarf. She has brown hair with bangs. We're smiling wide.

ALT My best friend Max takes a selfie of him and me walking along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Behind us, the reservoir has begun to ice over, and the distant trees are nearly bare. The sky looks clear. We're in winter coats: Max's is black, mine is burgundy. You can also see my green embroidered Frog and Toad sweatshirt, a dissertation-defense gift from Max and Ashley. We're smiling.

ALT Table of Contents for the dissertation. Text (as much as will fit) copied below: Table of Contents Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Abstract vi Table of Contents viii List of Tables x List of Figures xi Introduction 1 Methodology 11 Methodology: Psychoanalysis 14 Methodology: Deconstruction 20 Methodology: Animal Studies 23 Critical Contexts and Interventions 26 Chapters 34 AI Declaration 39 Chapter 1. Scene and Herd: Agency and the Distributed Self in Lydia Davis’s The Cows 40 Introduction 40 Context for The Cows 42 Argument: Davis’s Cows are Distributed Selves 52 1. Inciting One Another to Act 56 2. Rapid Coordinated Action 68 3. Play 82 Critical Contexts and Interventions 92 Critical Contexts and Interventions: On Lydia Davis 92 Critical Contexts and Interventions: On The Cows 99 Conclusion 106 Chapter 2. Ferry Tails: Continuity, Coherence, and the Multiple Self in David Ferry’s Dog Poems 108 Introduction 108 “Garden Dog” and “Backyard Dog”: Continuity of Self Through Time 119 “Samm