Erik of het klein insectenboek As part of our exploration of how our ideas of community might be reshaped to include bees as active participants, Johan Siebers has written a lovely piece exploring the role of bees in philosophy and literature.
This includes analyses of Godfried Bomans' Erik of het klein insectenboek, Virgil's Georgica, and Mandeville’s Fable of the bees, or: Private Vices, Public Benefits.
Read an excerpt and download the full paper just below.
This includes analyses of Godfried Bomans' Erik of het klein insectenboek, Virgil's Georgica, and Mandeville’s Fable of the bees, or: Private Vices, Public Benefits.
Read an excerpt and download the full paper just below.
When we look at the history of the bee in our consciousness we can see how, from the now obsolete religious disclosure of the world via the imperial monarchic imagination, bourgeois liberalism and the erasure of the unified horizon of signification in the 20th century, to the new striving for a human society without alienation that is not in conflict with nature but also does not give up its humanity, bees have accompanied us as the natural manifestation of the song we sing or buzz to ourselves, as a canvas for our hopes and our fears. We have lived with the bees and the bees have lived with us, from before we knew what that might one day mean.
| Siebers_Bee_Fables.pdf |
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