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

该项目分析了18世纪末至20世纪初文学史和知识史上的寄生虫。启发式地，可以确定这一历史的两个阶段：一个是器官阶段，在此期间，寄生被概念化为两种生物的关系，另一个是生态阶段，在此期间，寄生虫被认为是共同环境中的同居者。综合文本，包括文学和科学文本，构成了建议研究的基础。它们将在科学与文学研究（SLS）和文化与文学动物研究（CLAS）的方法和理论框架内进行，使材料具有新的阅读能力，远远超出当前的研究状态。这包括将寄生虫不仅视为文化理论中的一个概念，或文学中的一个主题；将文学寄生虫概念化为不仅仅是科学寄生虫的回声；并将其理解为不仅仅是对社会现象的简单隐喻。相反，寄生虫将被视为文学和知识历史中一个形象的代理人。这反过来又使我们能够分析这些共同归因的条件和前提、影响和后果。这些观点可以从不同的角度讲述寄生虫学建立的故事：起源于器官学的思维，但在本世纪的过程中转变为生态学模型。这种对寄生虫学历史的全新呈现只是该项目的一部分，其重点是不同流派（文学和科学）和不同概念（有机和生态）之间的纠缠和交叉以及相互反思。此外，这些关系的含义，特别是关于文学理论（隐喻，叙事方法等）和动物理论（伴侣物种，代理等）将进行分析。这些问题将在五个案例研究中进行探讨，这些案例研究反映了在调查期间寄生虫学模型和焦点的转变：第一个研究着眼于“虱子和跳蚤”，它们是寄生虫学的基础寄生虫，但有自己的（hi）故事。第二项研究讨论了居住在人体中的“内部动物”对可见性和叙述性构成的挑战。第三，将通过“人类的植物寄生虫”（如真菌）这一主题来探讨向生态思维的转变。第四部分通过“吸血者”：臭虫和水蛭，分析了19世纪下半叶成为话题的社会维度，构建了社会空间。最后一个案例研究致力于“感染和比喻/热带”，包括后殖民方面和观点。计划在第三年举行一次国际会议，将寄生虫的历史观点与当代表现和方法结合起来。

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.