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Animalcules

  • Ada Smailbegović (author)
Chapter of: Microbium: The Neglected Lives of Micro-matter(pp. 17–30)

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Metadata
TitleAnimalcules
ContributorAda Smailbegović (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.53288/0396.1.03
Landing pagehttps://punctumbooks.com/titles/microbium-the-neglected-lives-of-micro-matter/
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
CopyrightAda Smailbegović
Publisherpunctum books
Published on2023-09-07
Long abstractThis entry explores the hidden worlds of animalcules or micro-animals, such as tardigrades and mites. Such complex worlds are often inaccessible to the human sensorium due to their scale, except through the use of instruments like microscopes. With this in mind, the entry on micro-animals draws on the history of early microscopy by examining the writings and drawings of figures such as the seventeenth-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who was the first to observe animalcules, and the seventeenth-century English scientist Robert Hooke, who made extensive microscopic studies of matter in his book Micrographia (1665). This raises questions about the role of descriptive language in amplifying the miniature forms of micro-animals and making them discernable to humans, particularly through the use of metaphor, which often creates comparisons between these tiny creatures and more familiar macroscopic organisms and even inanimate entities that are perceptible at the human scale. In this way, metaphor acts as a kind of figurative microscope, bringing animalcules into view of human observers. At the same time, this entry attempts to look beyond the anthropocentric scales perceptible to humans and to consider the realm of “tiny perceptions,” which render the worlds of animalcules perceptible to these creatures.
Page rangepp. 17–30
Print length14 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Keywords
  • micro-animals
  • micro-matter
  • animalcules
  • microscopy
  • Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Contributors

Ada Smailbegović

(author)
Assistant Professor of English at Brown University

Ada Smailbegović is Assistant Professor of English at Brown University. She is the author of Poetics of Liveliness: Molecules, Fibers, Tissues, Clouds and a cofounder of the digital publishing platform the Organism for Poetic Research. Her published essays and poetic work have appeared in a varieaty of venues, including differences, Comparative Literature, Triple Canopy and angelaki.