The Modernist Exoskeleton : : Insects, War, Literary Form / / Rachel Murray.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Murray, Rachel,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture : ECCSMC
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.) :; 14 B/W illustrations

Argues for the importance of insects to modernism’s formal innovationsUses the idea of the insect as a key to modernist writers’ engagement with questions of politics, psychology, life, and literary formProvides in-depth analysis of lesser-known modernist narratives, such as H.D.’s Asphodel and Lewis’s Snooty Baronet, as well as new readings of canonical texts – including D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Samuel Beckett’s TrilogyExplores the influence of popular scientific writing on modernist aestheticsReveals the attentiveness of modernist writers to nonhuman life, thus forging new lines of connection between modernism and literary animal studiesFocusing 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FIGURES -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE -- ABBREVIATIONS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 SHELL BURSTS: WYNDHAM LEWIS -- 2 FORMICATION: D. H. LAWRENCE -- 3 COCOON STATES: H.D. -- 4 LARVAL FORMS: SAMUEL BECKETT -- CONCLUSION: ‘THINGS THAT WON’T QUITE FORMULATE' -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX