Melissa Haynes
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Tick Tock: Insect Figuration, Temporal Estrangement and Historiographic Critique in Postmodern and Contemporary Literature, Art, and Film by Melissa Haynes A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies University of Alberta © Melissa Haynes, 2019 Haynes ii Abstract This dissertation engages with posthumanist and postmodern theory, critical animal studies, and critiques of modern temporality and historiography to examine how insect figures trouble dominant understandings of historical time in contemporary Western literature, film, and art. It argues that insect figuration, as a way of “thinking with insects,” offers a strategy for deconstructing concepts such as human exceptionalism, progressive linear history, and colonial imperialism. These concepts, which have been central to colonialism and the work of yoking human and nonhuman energies to capitalist production, are ill-suited to address the manifold challenges of the Anthropocene (the present defined by human impact on the planet); by denaturalizing these hegemonic modes of perception, insect figures aid in the timely work of reconceiving and reconfiguring multispecies earthly relationships. The dissertation advances its claims by surveying critiques of temporal ideology and by closely reading a series of cultural texts. It gives an overview of insect temporality as a dislocating force in postmodern culture, before moving into a closer study of entomological artworks in the neo-Victorian and steampunk subgenres. It shows how these artworks reproduce a nineteenth century fascination with insects’ forms and affects, which is a key element of their efforts to defamiliarize that period’s culture and the clock-and-calendar-based historicity to which it gave rise. It then undertakes an extended case study of author China Miéville’s steampunk Bas-Lag trilogy and shows that, far from reifying pernicious values associated with the Victorian period, Miéville’s time-play exemplifies the use Haynes iii of insect and insectile figures to contest such values. This dissertation charts insect figures' provocative yet under-recognized ability to unsettle normative structures, and explores how this capacity can proliferate affects in the present and future, while opening up foreclosed possible meanings for the past. Haynes iv Preface This thesis is an original work by Melissa Haynes. No part of this thesis has been previously published. Haynes v Dedication I dedicate this work to my family, and to the other critters with whom I have shared support and love. Haynes vi Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of mentors, colleagues, friends, family, and funding institutions. I am more grateful than I say for the help and encouragement I have been given. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Karyn Ball. I am grateful for her encouragement, direction and advice. She has challenged and strengthened my thinking and writing at every stage of the process. I appreciate her efforts toward making my PhD defense a reality. Many thanks to my PhD committee members Professor Mark Simpson and Professor Eddy Kent for their engagement with my research. Thank you to Professor Roger Graves and Professor Heather Graves. Their mentorship helped me grow as a scholar, writer, and educator. Thanks to Professor Imre Szeman for his generous guidance and support throughout my doctoral studies. These scholars have been models of academic work at its finest. I am thankful for the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, and the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. I thank my diverse intellectual communities for their stimulating debates, insights and questions. It has been an honour to think together with you. I have been lucky to study with remarkable professors and graduate students at the University of Alberta. Their intellectual company has been a great gift, and their friendship has been a greater one. Andrea Hasenbank, Heather MacLeod, Helen Frost, Shama Rangwala, Brent Bellamy, Alex Carruthers, Derritt Mason, Jeff Diamanti, Marija Cetinic, Megan Farnel, Samantha Balzer, Taylor Scanlon, Meredith Snyder, Adam Carlson, Sean O’Brien, Amy De’Ath, Laura Schechter, Lucinda Rasmussen, Liam Young, and Alison Hurlburt, you are terrific and I’ve been so lucky to know you all. Thank you to my writing group, Jana Smith Elford, Valerie Savard, and Heather Larson, for conversation, accountability, and quiet comradeship. Joel Taras, thank you for your generous care and support as I made the final effort toward completing this dissertation: your efforts made it possible for me to get through to the end. I first began discussing the Anthropocene in a workshop at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture at the University of Giessen, Germany. Thank you to Imre, Dan, and Brent, as well as Matt MacLellan, Justin Sully, Dan Hartley, Andrew Pendakis, and the other participants for the inspiration. Participating in the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University was an incredible privilege; the intellectual work we undertook was an intense pleasure. Thank you to the seminar leaders, especially Professor Ian Baucom, and to my fellow participants, Camille van der Marel, Alex Lenoble, TJ West, Michaela Henry, Philip Dickinson, and Carrie Rohman in particular. Thank you to Kim Cunningham, whose inspiration and care were exactly what I needed. Haynes vii The Banff Research Institute in Culture also shaped my thinking in unique and crucial ways; thank you to the organizers and participants with whom I shared research and feedback. A special thank you so much to Li Cornfeld, for her brilliant scholarly companionship and nourishing friendship. Thank you to my loving, generous, supportive parents and brother. You taught me independence and kindness; curiosity and hard work. You are the reason for everything I have been able to accomplish, and I am endlessly fortunate to have such a wonderful family. Thank you to Dan Harvey, the smartest man I know, for everything. I have learned more from you and our many discussions and debates than I have from anything else. This is in many ways your accomplishment as well as mine. Thank you for helping me become the scholar and the person I am. Finally, thank you to the forests, the gardens, the fields and the rivers. Thank you to the birds and the herbs, the flowers and the turtles, the spiders and the walking sticks. Thank you to the bugs, beloved and creepy alike. All the nonhuman places and beings that have meant the world—thank you for becoming with me. Haynes viii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. II PREFACE ................................................................................................................................................... IV DEDICATION .............................................................................................................................................. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ VI LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... X INTRODUCTION: WHY LOOK AT INSECTS? ..................................................................................... 1 CULTURAL ENTOMOLOGY ....................................................................................................................................... 5 INSECTS AS STICKY FIGURES AND METAPHORS .................................................................................................. 9 INSECT AFFECTS .................................................................................................................................................... 13 POSTHUMAN INSECTS ........................................................................................................................................... 37 INSECTS, UEXKÜLL, UMWELT .............................................................................................................................. 47 HEIDEGGER’S APPROPRIATIONS OF INSECT ETHOLOGY ................................................................................. 56 AGAMBEN’S CRITIQUE OF BUGS IN THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL MACHINE...................................................... 62 BECOMING INSECT WITH DELEUZE AND GUATTARI ....................................................................................... 68 HARAWAY’S POSTHUMAN MENAGERIE ............................................................................................................. 81 CHAPTER 1: MODERN AND POSTMODERN HISTORICAL TIME ............................................ 91 NINETEENTH CENTURY CLOCK AND CALENDAR TIME ................................................................................... 93 PROBLEMATICS OF PERIODIZING ..................................................................................................................... 102 POSTMODERN TIME ........................................................................................................................................... 106 POSTMODERNISM’S PERSEVERANCE..............................................................................................................