Parasites. A Human-Animal-Figuration in the History of Literature and Knowledge in the “long 19th century”

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Roland Borgards
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature) ; History of Science
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468103661

The project analyses the parasite in the history of literature and knowledge, between the late 18th and the early 20th century. Heuristically, two phases of this history can be identified: an organological phase, during which parasitism was conceptualised as the relation of two living beings, and an ecological phase, during which parasites figured as cohabitants in a shared environment. An integrative body of texts, including literary and scientific texts, forms the basis for the suggested studies. They are to be undertaken within the methodological and theoretical framework of Science & Literature Studies (SLS) and Cultural & Literary Animal Studies (CLAS), enabling new readings of the material, going well beyond the current state of research. This includes seeing parasites not just as a notion in the theory of culture, or as a motif in literature; conceptualising the literary parasite as more than a mere echo of the scientific parasite; and understanding it as more than a simple metaphor for social phenomena. Instead, the parasite will be considered as an agent in a figuration in the history of literature and knowledge. This in-turn enables an analysis of the conditions and presuppositions, the effects and the fall-out of these common attributions.These perspectives allow telling the story of the establishment of parasitology in a different light: stemming from organological thinking but turning into an ecological model over the course of the century. This new rendering of the history of parasitology is only one strand of the project, which focusses on the entanglements and crossovers as well as mutual reflections between different genres (literature & science) and different concepts (organological & ecological). Additionally, the implications of these relations, in particular regarding literary theory (metaphorology, narrative methods, etc.) and animal theory (companion species, agency, etc.) will be analysed.These questions will be explored in five case studies, which are mirroring the shifting of parasitological models and foci at play in the period investigated: The first one looks at “Lice and Fleas”, which are the founding parasites of parasitology but carrying their own (hi)stories. The second study discusses the challenges to visibility and narratibility posed by those “Internal Animals” that inhabit the human body. Thirdly, the shift towards ecological thinking will be explored through the topic of the “Plant-Parasites of the Human”, e.g. mycoses. The social dimensions becoming topical in the second half of the 19th century are analysed through “Bloodsuckers” in the fourth part: bedbugs and leeches, structuring the social space. The final case study is devoted to “Infections and Tropes/Tropics”, comprising postcolonial aspects and perspectives.An international conference is planned in the third year, bringing together the historical perspective with contemporary representations of and approaches to parasites.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants