Le Clézio's "Monster Island:" The Derridean "Monstrosity of the Unrecognizable"

Abstract:This essay delves into monster theory and Derrida's late environmental philosophy in order to probe the philosophical, linguistic, and ethical implications of the metaphor of other-than-human monstrosity in Le Clézio's Voyages de l'autre côté. In this early narrative, the symbolism of the "monster island" deconstructs the oppositional thinking undergirding our representations of the world and our place in it. Overcoming his initial fright when confronted with an entity that is unrepresentable within our dichotomous thought systems, the unnamed old sailor begins to communicate with this "wholly other" which he realizes is a "fellow" semiotic, sentient being. This epiphany leads to a radical biocentric paradigm shift resulting in the creation of a new cognitive structure that is more capable of understanding the cosmos and our relationship to it in non-dualistic terms.