The Parasite and Parasitism in Victorian Science and Literature
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Title: The parasite and parasitism in victorian science and literature Author: Justyna Jajszczok Citation style: Jajszczok Justyna. (2017). The parasite and parasitism in victorian science and literature. Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski University of Silesia Faculty of Philology Justyna Jajszczok The Parasite and Parasitism in Victorian Science and Literature Dissertation written under the supervision of Dr hab. Małgorzata Nitka Sosnowiec 2017 Uniwersytet Śląski Wydział Filologiczny Justyna Jajszczok Pasożyt i pasożytnictwo w wiktoriańskiej nauce i literaturze Praca doktorska napisana pod kierunkiem Dr hab. Małgorzaty Nitki Sosnowiec 2017 CONTENTS Introduction .............................................................................................................. 6 Readings of Parasites in Literature ........................................................................ 9 The Critic as Parasite. Methodology and Review of Literature ............................ 16 Chapter I Interactions between Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century ... 28 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 28 The Ecology of Literature and Science Relations ................................................ 29 Literature and Science ........................................................................................ 33 Science in Literature ........................................................................................... 37 Literature in Science ........................................................................................... 43 George Eliot’s Middlemarch and G. H. Lewes’s Infusoria .................................. 55 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 65 Chapter II The Paradoxicality of Parasites .............................................................. 67 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 67 Biological Parasitism .......................................................................................... 69 From Parasitos to Parasite and Back .................................................................. 76 Parasitoi in Middlemarch and Bleak House. Families and Paradoxes ................. 80 The Paradox of the Child Parasitos .................................................................... 86 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 94 Chapter III Stories of Origin: From Within ............................................................. 98 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 98 The Trouble with Parasites ............................................................................... 100 Within and Without .......................................................................................... 105 From Within: Bodily Imbalance and Its Causes ................................................ 109 The Story of Imbalance in Bleak House ............................................................ 116 Literary Parasites: Contextual and Extratextual Approach ................................ 126 The Story of Disturbance in Middlemarch ........................................................ 129 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 139 Chapter IV Stories of Origin: From Without ......................................................... 141 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 141 Invasion Literature ........................................................................................... 143 Bacteriology ..................................................................................................... 148 Tropical Medicine ............................................................................................ 153 Infection Literature ........................................................................................... 161 The Sign of the Four ......................................................................................... 167 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 175 Chapter V Stories of Terror: The Hapless Host ..................................................... 178 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 178 The Beetle ........................................................................................................ 180 The Story of a Little Traveller .......................................................................... 186 The Story of an Impoverished Clerk ................................................................. 195 The Story of a Woman Who Became a Man ..................................................... 206 5 The Story of a Wasp and a Cockroach .............................................................. 212 The Story of a Barnacle and a Crab .................................................................. 217 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 219 Chapter VI A Story is a Story is a Story: Science and Literature Convergence...... 224 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 224 The Case Study of the Red Queen .................................................................... 226 The Story is Only Just Beginning. Parasite Avoidance Theory .......................... 230 The Story of Strange and Familiar Parasites ..................................................... 245 The Story of Unhuman Parasites....................................................................... 248 The Story of Contaminated Objects .................................................................. 254 The Story of Change and Advancement ............................................................ 259 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 262 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 264 Bibliography ........................................................................................................ 270 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................... 289 Summary in English ............................................................................................. 290 Summary in Polish ............................................................................................... 292 6 INTRODUCTION The aim of this dissertation is to study the phenomena of the parasite and parasitism in Victorian science and literature in order to demonstrate the interconnectedness between these two disciplines in terms of their employment of analogous themes, rhetorical devices, concepts and narratives. The parasite here serves as a particular example of the larger trend of cross-inspiration between scientific and literary works. This interconnectedness is presented through ecological interactions and the evolution-derived concept of convergence, both of which are used specifically to signal the equivalent status of literary and scientific narratives in the nineteenth century. The present work approaches the topic of the parasite and parasitism from four planes: ecology customary practice (parasitical interaction) (parasitos) PARASITE PARASITISM biology literature (organism) (metaphor) theoretical functional contextual extratextual approach approach approach approach Figure 1 Four Planes of Approaches to the Parasite and Parasitism The planes presented above show four directions of study included in this work. The plane referred to as customary practice traces the origin of the term parasite to its first and still relevant meaning in which parasitos denoted a person “eating at the table of another,” i.e. someone taking advantage of other people’s broadly understood generosity. Parasitos gave 7 its name to all the other ‘parasites’ and ‘parasitisms’ discussed in this work. The reason why the term ‘customary practice’ is introduced is to distinguish it from the concept of social parasitism which is not explored here. The ecological plane examines parasitism, that is an interaction in which one species benefits while the other is harmed as one of the possible ways in which the relations between scientific and literary texts can be approached. On the biology plane ‘parasite’ is understood either as any organism using other organisms to their benefit (theoretical approach) or as an organism of specific pathology towards their hosts (functional approach); the former approach is closer to the zoological branch of parasitology while the latter – to medicine. Finally, the literature plane is explored on which certain characters of chosen Victorian works of fiction are read as parasites, either because this is how they are portrayed (contextual approach) or because their behaviours can be interpreted as analogous to those exhibited by biological parasites (extratextual approach). The titular science is being understood here