While soap operas typically focus their storylines on human characters, animals serve significant roles in them too. Focussing on the most common animal in the series – dogs – this analysis examines the functions animals play in EastEnders (1985-present), foregrounding species-based hierarchies and popular culture’s normalised anthropocentrism. The focus here is on how pets function as symbols of the domestic, the familial and human-animal relationships. Drawing on Animal Studies and Critical Animal Studies approaches the analysis shows how soap operas make use of representations of pets, and the functions these fulfil in terms of the particular pleasures long-running, episodic soap operas offer.

中文翻译：

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BeastEnders：宠物和肥皂剧


虽然肥皂剧通常将故事情节集中在人类角色上，但动物也在其中扮演着重要的角色。本分析侧重于该系列中最常见的动物——狗——研究了动物在 EastEnders（1985 年至今）中发挥的功能，突出了基于物种的等级制度和流行文化的正常化人类中心主义。这里的重点是宠物如何作为家庭、家庭和人与动物关系的象征发挥作用。借鉴动物研究和批判动物研究方法，分析显示了肥皂剧如何利用宠物的表现，以及这些表现在长期播放的情节肥皂剧提供的特殊乐趣方面所实现的功能。