The Modernist Exoskeleton

Reviews / Votes

For Murray, we must grapple with the ways in which modernist insects inscribe "a new kind of human existence" and a vision of the "self" that is "more aware of its surroundings, more receptive to other ways of being, more conscious of its frailty," while testing this against later writing that offers a more sustained dismantling of the carapace of individual identity (174). -- Derek Ryan * Modernism/modernity, Volume 29, Number 2, April 2022, pp. 431-436 * Murray's study is thorough without being exhaustive, and perceptive without being over-analytical. It provides the reader with a unique set of insights into key modernist authors and leaves a clear sense of how such an analysis might be extended to others. [...] After reading it, you will be seeing insects everywhere in art and literature. -- Joe Darlington * The Cambridge Quarterly * In this witty and provocative study, Rachel Murray writes with gusto about the creepy crawly underworld of bugs, showing a Joycean relish for the way these creatures have infested the English language with a multitude of insectile puns and metaphors. Her work reveals a dimension of modernism that few scholars have addressed and demonstrates how attention to the entomological can transform our understanding of the works concerned. -- Maud Ellmann, University of Chicago