Swarm–Hybrid–Technology: The Transmedial Possibilities of Becoming-Insect

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2023.11.04

Keywords:

insect, becoming-insect, metamorphosis, non-human technology, posthumanism

Abstract

According to Rosi Braidotti, insects are determined by their in-between-ness and continuous becoming. The paper analyses the assemblage of insect figurations on two levels: non-human technology and unnatural narrative in stories about a transformation. Following Jussi Parikka’s media archaeology research, becoming-insect is examined on transmedial examples from literature (Franz Kafka—The Metamorphosis), film (David
Cronenberg—The Fly), video games and VR (All in! Games—Metamorphosis) and networked media. According to Jan Alber, exploration beyond human stances and defamiliarization in narrative fiction leads to the shift of cognitive frameworks. Radically Other insects transgress the anthropocentric paradigm and execute posthuman assumptions by a hybrid entanglement with humans and machines.

Author Biography

Piotr F. Piekutowski, University of Silesia in Katowice

Piotr F. Piekutowski – MA, PhD candidate in literary studies at the Doctoral School of The University of Silesia in Katowice, beekeeper. As part of his research work, he examines non-anthropocentric narratives in Polish literature of the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries. His latest publications appeared, among others, in the journals Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, Adeptus, Przegląd Kulturoznawczy, and in the monograph Fragmenty dyskursu żałobnego [Mourning Discourse: Fragments] (Gdańsk 2021). Editor of the collection of
short stories Pozaświat. Studencka antologia tekstów nie-ludzkich [Other-World. Students’ Anthology of Non-Human Fiction] (Katowice 2021).

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Published

2023-06-21

How to Cite

Piekutowski, P. F. (2023). Swarm–Hybrid–Technology: The Transmedial Possibilities of Becoming-Insect. Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies, (1 (11), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2023.11.04

Issue

No. 1 (11) (2023): Zoophilologica

Section

ARTICLES

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