Insect Legs in the Middle of the Pages: Eduardo Chirino's Entomological Zoopoetics in Three of His poems

Abstract

Despite the scant critical attention it has received in recent years, the work of Eduardo Chirinos (1960-2016) is extremely relevant when approaching the poetic representation of all kinds of animals, especially insects. In this article, I review the most important theories and concepts in the field of animal studies, in order to propose a zoopoetic reading of three poems by the Peruvian author, published in two collections of poems from 2013: 35 lecciones de biología (y tres crónicas didácticas) and Coloquio de los animales. The concept of zoopoetics, theorized by Aaron Moe, Kári Driscoll, and Eva Hoffmann, among others, proposes that animals are not only symbolic subjects that lend themselves to metaphorizations and other rhetorical resources, but are also active agents of representation within the literary text, where their animality enters into dialogue with the animal nakedness of the human being itself, in Derrida's words. From this perspective, Chirinos’ work can be interpreted as a complex zoopoetic network where insects contribute creatively to the production of his poetry, thought, and worldview.