In the Company of Caterpillars: Lessons on Language and Life from Insects

Abstract

This sandwich thesis takes another species—fall webworm caterpillars—as a guide and teacher, and it follows the critical questions that emerged from my relationship with these creatures and my analysis of local texts that reference them and their lifeways. Thus, the research questions explored here are defined by another creature’s influence and entanglements. Webworm caterpillars’ relationship to diction and storytelling are particularly prominent in this work, though it also engages with the caterpillars’ relationship to western science and popular culture. This research is arranged into three parts or research papers. The first considers how non-human communities are named; it investigates the word “colony” in relation to social insects. After critically examining some of this word’s connections to colonial geographies and evolutionary biology, it suggests that readers refrain from casually referring to insect collectives as “colonies.” The second paper focuses on the feeling of disgust and the supposed disposability of insect lives. It also analyses how some conservation groups have approached disgust in the past, and it encourages readers to lean into their uncomfortable feelings as they build relationships with other creatures. The third paper looks at the practices of reading and writing, and it acknowledges that our definitions of these terms have often been entangled with humancentric and Eurocentric worldviews. In an effort to reimagine cross-species relationships in a way that encourages peace and respect, this paper invites readers to broaden their understanding of literary practices to include non-human traces. Collectively, these papers represent an effort to learn from another species, an imperative echoed across the Environmental Humanities and Animal Studies, and one which requires me to grapple with my position as a settler scholar. It thus opens critical questions about how oft-reviled creatures are narrated across communities, and it encourages readers to engage in more respectful storytelling practices.