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
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
- Toislajisia tuntosarvia: Hyönteisten materiaalisuus kirjallisuudessa ekologisten kriisien aikana
- Bister, Sofia
- Koneen Säätiö
OKM-raportointi: Kyllä
Alustava JUFO-taso: 1