Insectile and the Deconstruction of the Non/Human

The Insectile and the Deconstruction of the Non/Human demonstrates the foundational but occluded role of the insectile in subject formation, tracking entomological events—such as buzzing, hatching, moulting, etc.—across the archives of psychoanalysis, seventeenth century still life painting, novels from the nineteenth century to the present day, and post-1970s film. The book analyses a phenomenon called entomological fascination, which it defines as the constellation between subjectivity, fascination and the insectile, and is driven by the central dynamic between form and formlessness: entomological fascination comprehends both a resistance to and a fantasy of total form. The investigation turns to Lacanian psychoanalysis—fascination and the insectile are key to Lacan’s work—to argue its case, whose ultimate intent is to undertake a broader deconstruction of the so-called human by insisting on its implications in the insectile. Lacan is usually eschewed in posthumanities debates, thereby missing an important resource: the Lacanian archive can be opened up to follow the dimensions of the posthuman in its insectile ‘forms’.