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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Le Clézio
• Biosemiotics
• endosemiotics
• biocentrism
• other-than-human communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Although endosemiotics is a well-established subfield of biosemiotics, I am using this specific terminology to focus on the strategic and deliberate communication that occurs even on a cellular level throughout the biotic community of life.

2. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated.

3. As I outline in a more systematic fashion in Contemporary French Environmental Thought in the Post-COVID-19 Era (2022), all organisms ‘attempt to gain a tactical advantage on the informational battlefield by exchanging signs with members of their community and trying to conceal the signals emitted by potential predators’ (78). I refer to this phenomenon as ‘tactical semiosis’.

4. This word is capitalised in the original French version of the text.

5. This point will be revisited in the final section of the essay.

6. I have added these ‘sics’ owing to the absence of the word ‘an’.

7. It should be noted that there are accompanying musical notations for each of these messages on page 143 of Voyages de l’autre côté..

8. I am referring to The Animal That Therefore I am and The Beast and the Sovereign series.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Keith Moser

Keith Moser is a Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Mississippi State University. He has more than 100 major publications including eight books and seventy-nine articles. Moser’s research examines many issues linked to social-ecological justice. His research focuses on Environmental Ethics (Environmental Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Ecocriticism, Ecolinguistics and Biosemiotics) and postmodern French thought as it relates to literature, Popular Culture and society in general.