Peter Hitchcock is Distinguished Professor of English, Film and Media Cultures, and Women's and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College, City University of New York, USA. He is author or editor of, most recently, Seriality and Social Change (2025), Biotheory: Life and Death Under Capitalism (2020, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo), The Debt Age (2018, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo and Sophia McClennen), and Labor in Culture, or, Worker of the World(s) (2017).

A useful book at a time when ‘extractionism’ has become epochal. Parasitical Logic in Culture and Society shows that the parasite is with us not only biologically, socially, and economically, but more persistently ‘logically’: methodo-logically, anthropo-logically, and philo-logically. Parasitism is a ‘perfect logic,’ as one contributor points out, but it can coexist with other logics, for example that of mutualism.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Parasites!Peter Hitchcock (Graduate Center and Baruch College, CUNY, USA)Part One: Textuality1. Beyond the Parasitical Logic in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (2005)Debarati Biswas (New York City College of Technology, CUNY, USA)2. Leeching off the Duniya: Queer Futures in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost HappinessShoumik Bhattacharya (Metropolitan State University, USA)3. Wholly, Holey Insufficient: Parasitism as a Critique of MeaningTess J. Given (Indiana University, USA)Part Two: Mediations4. Fruiting Bodies, or, Nostalgia Is a Form of DecayJoseph Boisvere (Graduate Center, CUNY, USA)5. Post-Work Lumpen: Inequality and Deprivation in Contemporary Society in Amarelo MangaMárcio Valença (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)6. First-Contact Scenes and Parasitical Master-Servant and Host-Guest Representations in The Servant, Parasite, and RipleyRebecca Dyer (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, USA)7. The New Parasite: Nishida Kitaro and Michael Snow Eric Cazdyn (University of Toronto, Canada)Part Three: Structures8. Racial Parasites and Class Rule: White Riot and Sadist AccumulationJustin Rogers-Cooper (Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, USA) and Scott Henkel (University of Wyoming, USA)9. Olga Ravn’s The Employees and the Parasitic Form of Labor ManagementChristian Gerzso (Pacific Lutheran University, USA)10. Parasites, Neoliberalism, and the Death of the UniversityJeffrey R. Di Leo (University of Houston, Victoria, USA)11. The Language of Insurrection: The Indexicality of a Parasitical SocietyRenata Archanjo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)Notes on ContributorsIndex

Peter Hitchcock is Distinguished Professor of English, Film and Media Cultures, and Women's and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College, City University of New York, USA. He is author or editor of, most recently, Seriality and Social Change (2025), Biotheory: Life and Death Under Capitalism (2020, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo), The Debt Age (2018, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo and Sophia McClennen), and Labor in Culture, or, Worker of the World(s) (2017).

A useful book at a time when ‘extractionism’ has become epochal. Parasitical Logic in Culture and Society shows that the parasite is with us not only biologically, socially, and economically, but more persistently ‘logically’: methodo-logically, anthropo-logically, and philo-logically. Parasitism is a ‘perfect logic,’ as one contributor points out, but it can coexist with other logics, for example that of mutualism.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Parasites!Peter Hitchcock (Graduate Center and Baruch College, CUNY, USA)Part One: Textuality1. Beyond the Parasitical Logic in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (2005)Debarati Biswas (New York City College of Technology, CUNY, USA)2. Leeching off the Duniya: Queer Futures in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost HappinessShoumik Bhattacharya (Metropolitan State University, USA)3. Wholly, Holey Insufficient: Parasitism as a Critique of MeaningTess J. Given (Indiana University, USA)Part Two: Mediations4. Fruiting Bodies, or, Nostalgia Is a Form of DecayJoseph Boisvere (Graduate Center, CUNY, USA)5. Post-Work Lumpen: Inequality and Deprivation in Contemporary Society in Amarelo MangaMárcio Valença (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)6. First-Contact Scenes and Parasitical Master-Servant and Host-Guest Representations in The Servant, Parasite, and RipleyRebecca Dyer (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, USA)7. The New Parasite: Nishida Kitaro and Michael Snow Eric Cazdyn (University of Toronto, Canada)Part Three: Structures8. Racial Parasites and Class Rule: White Riot and Sadist AccumulationJustin Rogers-Cooper (Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, USA) and Scott Henkel (University of Wyoming, USA)9. Olga Ravn’s The Employees and the Parasitic Form of Labor ManagementChristian Gerzso (Pacific Lutheran University, USA)10. Parasites, Neoliberalism, and the Death of the UniversityJeffrey R. Di Leo (University of Houston, Victoria, USA)11. The Language of Insurrection: The Indexicality of a Parasitical SocietyRenata Archanjo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)Notes on ContributorsIndex

Peter Hitchcock is Distinguished Professor of English, Film and Media Cultures, and Women's and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College, City University of New York, USA. He is author or editor of, most recently, Seriality and Social Change (2025), Biotheory: Life and Death Under Capitalism (2020, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo), The Debt Age (2018, co-edited with Jeffrey Di Leo and Sophia McClennen), and Labor in Culture, or, Worker of the World(s) (2017).

A useful book at a time when ‘extractionism’ has become epochal. Parasitical Logic in Culture and Society shows that the parasite is with us not only biologically, socially, and economically, but more persistently ‘logically’: methodo-logically, anthropo-logically, and philo-logically. Parasitism is a ‘perfect logic,’ as one contributor points out, but it can coexist with other logics, for example that of mutualism.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Parasites!Peter Hitchcock (Graduate Center and Baruch College, CUNY, USA)Part One: Textuality1. Beyond the Parasitical Logic in Octavia Butler’s Fledgling (2005)Debarati Biswas (New York City College of Technology, CUNY, USA)2. Leeching off the Duniya: Queer Futures in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost HappinessShoumik Bhattacharya (Metropolitan State University, USA)3. Wholly, Holey Insufficient: Parasitism as a Critique of MeaningTess J. Given (Indiana University, USA)Part Two: Mediations4. Fruiting Bodies, or, Nostalgia Is a Form of DecayJoseph Boisvere (Graduate Center, CUNY, USA)5. Post-Work Lumpen: Inequality and Deprivation in Contemporary Society in Amarelo MangaMárcio Valença (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)6. First-Contact Scenes and Parasitical Master-Servant and Host-Guest Representations in The Servant, Parasite, and RipleyRebecca Dyer (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, USA)7. The New Parasite: Nishida Kitaro and Michael Snow Eric Cazdyn (University of Toronto, Canada)Part Three: Structures8. Racial Parasites and Class Rule: White Riot and Sadist AccumulationJustin Rogers-Cooper (Graduate Center and LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, USA) and Scott Henkel (University of Wyoming, USA)9. Olga Ravn’s The Employees and the Parasitic Form of Labor ManagementChristian Gerzso (Pacific Lutheran University, USA)10. Parasites, Neoliberalism, and the Death of the UniversityJeffrey R. Di Leo (University of Houston, Victoria, USA)11. The Language of Insurrection: The Indexicality of a Parasitical SocietyRenata Archanjo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)Notes on ContributorsIndex