Modernist Parasites

This book analyzes the unstable, shifting perceptions of parasites in biological and social settings after 1900. It argues that “parasite” is a dangerous label for nonhuman animals and minorities, yet many modernist writers reimagine the parasite as the embodiment of dependency in a posthumanist world.

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Modernist Parasites: Bioethics, Dependency, and Literature, post-1900 analyzes biological and social parasites in the political, scientific, and literary imagination. Initially referring to a guest who exchanged stories for a place at the dinner table, Sebastian Williams argues that the parasite has developed into a vile and hated figure who drains energy from the body politic. With the rise of Darwinism, eugenics, and parasitology in the late nineteenth century, he posits that “parasite” became a biosocial term for Humanity’s ultimate Other—a dangerous antagonist. But many modernist authors reconsider the parasite to critique the liberal humanist sense of an independent Self. Considering work by Isaac Rosenberg, John Steinbeck, Franz Kafka, Clarice Lispector, Nella Larsen, and George Orwell, among others, the author argues that even parasites have their place in a posthumanist world. Ultimately, he argues the parasite inherently depends on others for its survival, illustrating the limits of ethical models that privilege the discrete individual above interdependent communities.