Caroline Hovanec, Visiting Scholar
Vermin Theory: Parasitic Life from Kafka's The Metamorphosis to Rawi Hage's Cockroach
Caroline Hovanec (University of Tampa)
Cockroaches, rats, pigeons, mosquitoes, and other vermin test the limits of our enchantment with animal life. Yet modern and contemporary writers have found in these vile creatures matter for admiration, humor, and perverse sympathies. What is it about vermin that makes them so creatively generative? This talk will explore how literature represents and recasts vile creatures, focusing on Franz Kafka's 1915 novella The Metamorphosis and Rawi Hage's 2008 novel Cockroach. Kafka and Hage's vermin imagery asks reader to think differently about hospitality, debt, and the redistributive potential of the parasite.