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Argues for the importance of insects to modernism's formal innovations Focusing on the writing of Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence, H.D. and Samuel Beckett, this book uncovers a shared fascination with the aesthetic possibilities of the insect body - its adaptive powers, distinct stages of growth and swarming formations. Through a series of close readings, it proposes that the figure of the exoskeleton, which functions both as a protective outer layer and as a site of encounter, can enhance our understanding of modernism's engagement with nonhuman life, as well as its questioning of the boundaries of the human. Rachel Murray is a postdoctoral research fellow at Loughborough University.
List of contents
List of illustrations
Introduction
1. Shell Bursts: Wyndham Lewis
2. Formication: D. H. Lawrence
3. Cocoon States: H.D.
4. Larval Forms: Samuel Beckett
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Rachel Murray is lecturer in English at Loughborough University. She is the author of several book chapters and articles in refereed journals including 'Insects in Language and Literature',
A Cultural History of Insects, eds. Gene Kritsky, Vazrick Nasari (Bloomsbury, 2019); 'Beelines: Joyce's Apian Aesthetics', Humanities Special Issue: James Joyce, Animals, and the Non Human, Vol. 6, No. 2 (June 2017), pp. 1-14 and 'Vermicular Origins: The Creative Evolution of Samuel Beckett's Worm' [Winner of the 2016 BSLS/JLS Early Career Essay Prize], Journal of Literature and Science, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2016), pp. 19-35.
Summary
Focusing on the writing of Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence, H.D. and Samuel Beckett, this book uncovers a shared fascination with the aesthetic possibilities of the insect body – its adaptive powers, distinct stages of growth and swarming formations.
