A Biosemiotic Reading of J.M.G. Le Clézio’s Fiction: (Re-) Envisioning the Complexity of Other-Than-Human Semiosis and Trans-Specific Communication

Abstract

ABSTRACT Delving into biosemiotic and endosemiotic theory, this transdisciplinary analysis of Le Clézio’s fiction illustrates how the Franco-Mauritian author undermines the dichotomous thinking that pits the human semiotic agent against soulless automata whose sounds and gestures are nothing but the insignificant product of an internal machinery. Le Clézio takes aim at much of Western philosophy and traditional linguistic theory, which tend to undermine the importance of other-than-human semiosis entirely, in his call for a re-evaluation of the complexity of the signs that are endlessly being conceived, transmitted and interpreted by and between various species. Similar to the founding father of Biosemiotics Jakob von Uexküll, Le Clézio implores us to reinvigorate our dulled senses in the postmodern world in order to (re-) establish a sensorial connection to the ‘score of nature’, thereby enabling us to catch a glimpse of the billions of other biosemiosic threads in the web of life.