Eric C. Brown, Editor
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
2006, 405 pp.
Price: $25.00, soft cover
ISBN: 0-8166-4696-1

In Insect Poetics, Eric Brown has assembled 18 original essays that focus on the role insects play in a variety of literary, artistic, and cultural works, and thus he offers an opportunity to explore how insects have been perceived by others throughout history and outside the field of entomology. In his introduction, Brown links insects to the arts when he notes Pliny’s need to justify the study of small organisms such as insects and concludes that “the details required to shape the intricacies of the insect require an artist.” And while not disputing that insects are a common element of the human experience, Brown emphasizes the formidable distance between insects and humans that “must be mediated—by art, artifice, technology.” These ideas set the stage for a challenging and insightful treatment of how insects have inspired a range of artistic and literary endeavors.  

The contributions to this book are organized into three parts. Part I, Literary Entomologies, includes eight essays that deal with the appearance of insects and insect imagery in a variety of literary works. Whereas the insect-themed work of Don Marquis and Franz Kafka may be familiar to most entomologists, the influence of insects and the entomological reflected in the writing of authors including Virgil, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Kobe Abé will likely be a revelation to many readers. With the exception of May Berenbaum’s survey of insects in poetry, which is written for a general audience, the essays in this section provide critical literary analyses that seem to be written for the authors’ peers in the humanities. However, the insects and entomological phenomena that are featured in these works, including themes of metamorphosis, social insects, swarming locusts, and cockroaches, are familiar to entomologists. The analyses are thought provoking and, for the most part, biologically tenable. For example, Tony McGowan argues that Thoreau’s views of slavery and immigration were influenced by having read descriptions of slave-making ants and swarming locusts, respectively.

The five essays in Part II, Rhetoric and Aesthetics, cover a range of topics about how insect images and entomological works either reflect or have influenced prevailing cultural views and attitudes. Subjects include the use of emblematic beetles during the Renaissance, the contrasting economic views (particularly as to the value of labor) based on analysis of beekeeping and sericulture manuals from 17th-century England, and the impact of the microscope and corresponding increased powers of observation on 18th-century aesthetics.

Most powerful is Cristopher Hollingsworth’s essay on how the use of insect metaphor has played an important role in dehumanizing racial and ethnic groups. Not surprisingly, “cockroach” is a label commonly applied to undesirable groups, from the Tutsis in Rwanda to Mexican immigrants in the United States. Use of this negative metaphor is compromised by the positive view of the cockroach in Mexican folklore. This essay makes an interesting contrast with Marion Copeland’s essay in Part I that discusses the biocentric and ecocentric themes in literary works featuring cockroaches. 

Part III, Unsettling Insects, contains four essays that emphasize the theme of insects as being distinctly “other” from humanity that Brown develops in his introduction. Charlotte Sleigh notes the transition of entomologists from avid collectors and natural historians into professionals devoted to controlling insect pests in the early 20th century as she explores psychological aspects of the widespread view of insects as “creepy,” undesirable organisms. Nicky Coutts explores malevolent portrayals of insects in a variety of artistic media from the Middle Ages to the present. Richard Leskosky analyzes the prevalence of giant insects and other arthropods in science fiction/horror films (i.e., big bug films). Insect images from early cinematic works and more recently produced films are included, along with the many classic big bug films from the 1950s, such as THEM!  Sarah Gordon concludes this section with a discussion of the spectacle of entomophagy, particularly as portrayed in Western society. Her analyses of television shows such as Fear Factor and insect-cuisine features on the Food Network channel, seem to be an important and original contribution to discussions of entomophagy. 

Most authors provide adequate background information and quotations from the pieces they are analyzing to support their theses and help readers follow their analyses. There are, however, relatively few figures in the book, which is frustrating when an author is discussing a visual image that is not pictured in the text. Endnotes, including citations of works mentioned in the text, are included at the end of each essay. A helpful index is provided that includes scientific and common names of insects mentioned in the text, artists and authors, and general topics such as “film treatment of insects,” which includes the title, date, and director of all films mentioned in the book.

The essays in Insect Poetics offer an interdisciplinary treatment of insects that stretches the boundaries in which most entomologists think about their subject. Readers may find some essays, particularly in Part I, inaccessible at first reading because the style and language of academic discourse differ dramatically from that of the sciences. Essays in Parts I and II seem to draw upon more entomological information than those in Part I, and thus may be more accessible to readers with a scientific background. Those readers hoping for a work of popular science with a focus on insects in the arts are likely to be disappointed. Some essays from this collection could be assigned to supplement standard texts and would generate interesting discussion in undergraduate classes in which the goal is to consider how the influence of insects is realized in other fields.

This collection would be a valuable addition to university libraries and of interest to those whose entomological interests are eclectic and interdisciplinary.  I particularly recommend this book to instructors of courses on insects and human society, who will find the essays helpful for class preparation and for identifying additional literary and artistic works that feature insect images. 

Tracey M. Anderson
Division of Science and Math
University of Minnesota, Morris
Morris, MN  56267
Email: anderstm@morris.umn.edu

American Entomology
Vol. 54, No. 3, Fall 2008