A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
Thinking with traces : A posthumanist reading of human and nonhuman agencies in Zhu Yingchun’s The Language of Bugs (2024)

Bister, S. (2024). Thinking with traces : A posthumanist reading of human and nonhuman agencies in Zhu Yingchun’s The Language of Bugs. Trace, 10, 136-159. https://doi.org/10.23984/fjhas.136668

JYU-tekijät tai -toimittajat

Bister, Sofia

Julkaisun tiedot

Julkaisun kaikki tekijät tai toimittajat: Bister, Sofia

Lehti tai sarja: Trace

eISSN: 2343-0591

Julkaisuvuosi: 2024

Ilmestymispäivä: 15.04.2024

Volyymi: 10

Artikkelin sivunumerot: 136-159

Kustantaja: Finnish Society for Human-Animal Studies

Julkaisumaa: Suomi

Julkaisun kieli: englanti

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23984/fjhas.136668

Julkaisun avoin saatavuus: Avoimesti saatavilla

Julkaisukanavan avoin saatavuus: Kokonaan avoin julkaisukanava

Julkaisu on rinnakkaistallennettu (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/94523

Tiivistelmä

The Language of Bugs by Zhu Yingchun (2018) is an art book wavering between the linguistic and the bodily, visual arts and literature. Consisting of thousands of traces left on paper by real-life insects and their bodily movements, it does not contain any text traditionally readable for humans, but claims to be a book written entirely in the language of insects. The traces indicate nonhuman agency for the insects and present writing and literature as subjects of nonhuman actions and messy interspecies collaboration. At the same time, the book rises questions on insect “language” and the possibility of ethical representation originating from a very human point-of-experience. In this article, I reflectively explore different crossings of human and nonhuman agencies in The Language of Bugs, as well as how the book engages with questions of representation and materiality, writing and literature in the framework of posthumanist reading. I analyse the book as participating in the attempt to notice more-than-human ways of being in literature and culture, which are traditionally only perceived through human agency. The context of my reading is threat posed by ecological crises and especially the decline in insect populations for the future of the planet. I argue that Zhu Yingchun’s book represents a wider shift in thinking about the natural world and humans’ place in it. Ultimately, the book articulates one very basic question: can literature widen to include traces of nonhuman movements?

YSO-asiasanat: kuvataide; kirjallisuus; kirjataide; hyönteiset; eläinten jäljet; kirjoittaminen; toimijuus; keinotekoiset kielet; posthumanismi

Vapaat asiasanat: Zhu, Yingchun

Liittyvät organisaatiot

Hankkeet, joissa julkaisu on tehty

OKM-raportointi: Kyllä

Alustava JUFO-taso: 1