The Modernist Exoskeleton: Insects, War and Literary Form

Argues for the importance of insects to modernism’s formal innovations

Uses the idea of the insect as a key to modernist writers’ engagement with questions of politics, psychology, life, and literary form Provides in-depth analysis of lesser-known modernist narratives, such as H.D.‘s Asphodel and Lewis’s Snooty Baronet, as well as new readings of canonical texts - including D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy Explores the influence of popular scientific writing on modernist aesthetics Reveals the attentiveness of modernist writers to nonhuman life, thus forging new lines of connection between modernism and literary animal studies

Focusing on the writing of Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence, H.D. and Samuel Beckett, this book uncovers a shared fascination with the aesthetic possibilities of the insect body - its adaptive powers, distinct stages of growth and swarming formations. Through a series of close readings, it proposes that the figure of the exoskeleton, which functions both as a protective outer layer and as a site of encounter, can enhance our understanding of modernism’s engagement with nonhuman life, as well as its questioning of the boundaries of the human.