Vladimir Nabokov, both writer and entomologist, once explained that he could not separate the aesthetic pleasure of seeing a butterfly and the scientific pleasure of knowing what it is. [Interview with Robert H. Boyle, Sports Illustrated, 1959]. This conference proposes to examine man's fascination with the world of insects as reflected not only in the rich history of entomological research, from amateur or professional collecting to scientific expeditions, but also in more artistic forms of expression - myth, literature, painting, photography, cinema and music. Whether insects stimulate man's curiosity or inspire fear, whether parallels or contrasts are seen between human society and the astonishing skills of insects, this conference aims to explore the relation between man and insects.

Through the study of either scientific and technological developments in entomology, or artistic concerns with insects, we invite specialists of entomology and/or the arts to reconsider the relationship of man to nature through the magnifying glass of an entomologist.

To attend the conference, registration is required. The registration form can be downloaded from this page.

PROGRAMME

Tuesday May 4, 2010

Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Toulouse

Auditorium Picot de Lapeyrouse

8.45 Registration

9.00 Welcome speech

Chair : Wendy HARDING, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

9.30-10.00 Marie BOUCHET, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

“Nabokov’s Text under the Microscope : Textual Practices of Detail in Both his Lepidopterological and Fictional Writings”

10.00-10.30 Brigitte ZAUGG, Université Paul Verlaine-Metz, France

“From Revulsion to Fascination : William H. Gass’ ‘Order of Insects’”

10.30-11.00 Carlos Augusto RIBEIRO & Ana Paula GUIMARÃES, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

“Enchanting Webs of Ants and Beetles in Oral Stories”

COFFEE BREAK

11.30-12.00 Catherine LANONE, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

“A Way of Seeing : from Eleanor Ormerod’s Injurious Insects to Virginia Woolf’s Butterflies”

12.00-12.30 Yvonne REDDICK, University of Warwick, England

“‘The Hanged Man and the Dragonfly’ : Aquatic Insects and Metamorphosis in the Works of Ted Hughes”

LUNCH BREAK

Chair : Marie BOUCHET, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

14.00-15.00 Nicolas WITKOWSKI, Editions Gallimard, Paris, France

“A Cultural History of the Butterfly : An Illustrated Overview”

15.00-15.30 Hélène PERRIN, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

“Insects and Hagiography”

15.30-16.00 Meyssa BEN SAAD, Université Paris VII, France

“Insects in Al-Jâhiz’ Classification of Animals in the 8th-9th Centuries : Between Myth and Reason”

COFFEE BREAK

16.30-17.00 Laurel STEELE, Department of State, Washington DC, USA

“The Myth of the Moth and the Flame : Insect Metaphors in Urdu Poetry”

17.00-17.30 S. Romi MUKHERJEE, University of Chicago, USA

“Love, Cannibalism, and the Sacred : Roger Caillois and the Myth of the Praying Mantis”

17.30-18.00 Virgil BROWER, Northwestern University, USA

“Sex, Sects, Insects, Insurrections : Bugging Continental Theory”

20.30 Public lecture (in French)

Yves CAMBEFORT, Chargé de recherche CNRS, Université Paris-Diderot, Paris VII

‘Des Scarabées et des hommes : Histoire des coléoptères de l’ancienne Egypte à nos jours’

Wednesday May 5, 2010

Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Toulouse

Auditorium Picot de Lapeyrouse

Chair : Laurence TALAIRACH-VIELMAS, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

9.00-9.30 Jean-François AUGER, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

“Science, Culture and Society through the History of Leon Provancher’s Insect Collections”

9.30-10.00 Laurence ROUSSILLON-CONSTANTY, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, France

““Beesiness”, John Ruskin’s Treatment of Bees in Fors Clavigera”

10.00-10.30 Virginie MEZAN-MUXART, Université de Limoges, France

Alberto SENDRA MOCHOLI, Universidad de Valencia, Spain

“When Literature Sublimates and Popularizes the Most Villainous of Entomology : The Invertebrates of Cellars and Caves”

COFFEE BREAK

11.00-11.30 Hélène MACHINAL, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France

“Conan Doyle’s ‘The Beetle Hunter’”

11.30-12.00 Gilles MENEGALDO, Université de Poitiers, France

“Ants on Hollywood Screens : Monstrous Mutations and Projected Fears”

LUNCH BREAK

Chair : Catherine LANONE, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France

14.00-14.30 Wendy HARDING, Université Toulouse II-Le Mirail, France,

Jacky MARTIN, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III, France

“Encounters of the Third Kind : the Representation of Insects in Nature Writing”

14.30-15.00 Tracey A. CUMMINGS, Lock Haven University, USA

“The Bee as Emblem and Critique of American Industriousness in Thoreau’s Walden and Alcott’s Work”

15.00-15.30 Emilie VERGÉ, Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle, France

“Naturalism and Modernism : Mothlight (1963) by Stan Brakhage”

COFFEE BREAK

16.00-16.30 Ana Isabel QUEIROZ, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

“Biological Invasions and Literature : Looking for the Argentine Ant”

16.30-17.00 Anne MCCRARY SULLIVAN, National-Louis University, USA, Poet-in-Residence in Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve

“Insects through the Eyes of a Poet”

VISIT OF THE TOULOUSE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

20.30 Conference Banquet

Conference organizers :

Laurence TALAIRACH-VIELMAS Catherine LANONE

Marie BOUCHET Francis DURANTHON

For more information :

exploraentomology@gmail.com