Notes on Vermin
Vermin—rats, cockroaches, pigeons, mosquitoes, and other pests—are, to most people, objects of disgust. And vermin metaphors, likening human beings to these loathed creatures, appear in the ugliest forms of political rhetoric. Indeed, vermin imagery has often been used to denigrate poor, foreign, or...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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University of Michigan Press
2025
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| Online Access: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/96880 |
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| _version_ | 1869525591862018048 |
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| author | Hovanec, Caroline |
| author_browse | Hovanec, Caroline |
| author_facet | Hovanec, Caroline |
| author_sort | Hovanec, Caroline |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Vermin—rats, cockroaches, pigeons, mosquitoes, and other pests—are, to most people, objects of disgust. And vermin metaphors, likening human beings to these loathed creatures, appear in the ugliest forms of political rhetoric. Indeed, vermin imagery has often been used to denigrate poor, foreign, or racialized people. Yet many writers have reclaimed vermin, giving new meaning to creeping rodents, swarming insects, and wriggling worms.
Notes on Vermin is an atlas of the literary vermin that appear in modern and contemporary literature, from Franz Kafka’s gigantic insect to Richard Wright’s city rats to Namwali Serpell’s storytelling mosquitoes. As parasites, trespassers, and collectives, vermin animals prove useful to writers who seek to represent life in the margins of power. Drawing on psychoanalysis, cultural studies, eco-Marxism, and biopolitics, this book explores four uses for literary vermin: as figures for the repressed thought, the uncommitted fugitive, the freeloading parasite, and the surplus life. In a series of short, accessible, interlinked essays, Notes on Vermin explores what animal pests can show us about our cultures, our environments, and ourselves. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-149718 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | University of Michigan Press |
| publisherStr | University of Michigan Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1497182025-07-21T15:45:20Z Notes on Vermin Hovanec, Caroline Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, insects in literature, rats in literature, biopolitics, literary studies, modernism, modernist literature, contemporary literature, Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, parasite, parasitism, creaturely, cockroaches in literature, pigeons in literature, mosquitoes in literature, Namwali Serpell, Richard Wright, eco-Marxism, The Metamorphosis, Native Son, Rawi Hage, Cockroach, Louise Erdrich, Plague of Doves, iconography, metaphor, vermin, animal studies, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, pests, critical theory, Franz Kafka thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism Vermin—rats, cockroaches, pigeons, mosquitoes, and other pests—are, to most people, objects of disgust. And vermin metaphors, likening human beings to these loathed creatures, appear in the ugliest forms of political rhetoric. Indeed, vermin imagery has often been used to denigrate poor, foreign, or racialized people. Yet many writers have reclaimed vermin, giving new meaning to creeping rodents, swarming insects, and wriggling worms. Notes on Vermin is an atlas of the literary vermin that appear in modern and contemporary literature, from Franz Kafka’s gigantic insect to Richard Wright’s city rats to Namwali Serpell’s storytelling mosquitoes. As parasites, trespassers, and collectives, vermin animals prove useful to writers who seek to represent life in the margins of power. Drawing on psychoanalysis, cultural studies, eco-Marxism, and biopolitics, this book explores four uses for literary vermin: as figures for the repressed thought, the uncommitted fugitive, the freeloading parasite, and the surplus life. In a series of short, accessible, interlinked essays, Notes on Vermin explores what animal pests can show us about our cultures, our environments, and ourselves. 2025-01-13T22:47:57Z 2025-01-13T22:47:57Z 2025-01-06T11:34:17Z 2025 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/96880 9780472077205 9780472057207 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/149718 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/96880/1/9780472904822.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/96880/1/9780472904822.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/96880/1/9780472904822.pdf University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12756041 10.3998/mpub.12756041 b7359529-e5f7-4510-a59f-d7dafa1d4d17 9780472077205 9780472057207 205 open access |
| spellingShingle | Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, insects in literature, rats in literature, biopolitics, literary studies, modernism, modernist literature, contemporary literature, Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, parasite, parasitism, creaturely, cockroaches in literature, pigeons in literature, mosquitoes in literature, Namwali Serpell, Richard Wright, eco-Marxism, The Metamorphosis, Native Son, Rawi Hage, Cockroach, Louise Erdrich, Plague of Doves, iconography, metaphor, vermin, animal studies, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, pests, critical theory, Franz Kafka thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism Hovanec, Caroline Notes on Vermin |
| title | Notes on Vermin |
| title_full | Notes on Vermin |
| title_fullStr | Notes on Vermin |
| title_full_unstemmed | Notes on Vermin |
| title_short | Notes on Vermin |
| title_sort | notes on vermin |
| topic | Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, insects in literature, rats in literature, biopolitics, literary studies, modernism, modernist literature, contemporary literature, Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, parasite, parasitism, creaturely, cockroaches in literature, pigeons in literature, mosquitoes in literature, Namwali Serpell, Richard Wright, eco-Marxism, The Metamorphosis, Native Son, Rawi Hage, Cockroach, Louise Erdrich, Plague of Doves, iconography, metaphor, vermin, animal studies, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, pests, critical theory, Franz Kafka thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism |
| topic_facet | Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, insects in literature, rats in literature, biopolitics, literary studies, modernism, modernist literature, contemporary literature, Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, parasite, parasitism, creaturely, cockroaches in literature, pigeons in literature, mosquitoes in literature, Namwali Serpell, Richard Wright, eco-Marxism, The Metamorphosis, Native Son, Rawi Hage, Cockroach, Louise Erdrich, Plague of Doves, iconography, metaphor, vermin, animal studies, environmental humanities, ecocriticism, pests, critical theory, Franz Kafka thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/96880 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hovaneccaroline notesonvermin |