A Derridean Interpretation of Vercors’s Early Attempt to Problematize the Concept of the "Animal" in Les Animaux dénaturés
ORCID
Moser: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3824-1021
MSU Affiliation
College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures
Creation Date
2026-06-01
Abstract
This article builds upon Derrida’s posthumous works The Animal that Therefore I am and The Beast and the Sovereign series to reexamine Vercors’s relatively neglected novel Les Animaux dénaturés (1952). Vercors’s fascination with scientific explanations of the world led him to problematize the concept of the “animal” in the genocidal aftermath of World War II. The author’s theory of an outside is off-putting to many contemporary readers, yet Vercors’s limitrophic deconstruction of the “propers of man” still rings true more than ever from a scientific angle. Vercors may have fallen into one speciesist trap, nonetheless, his rethinking of human animality is still a useful starting point for redefining Homo sapiens according to more objective criteria. The writer’s main point that the conversation about what it means to be human begins by recognizing our animal, cosmic essence in our DNA is persuasive and timeless. Derrida and Vercors demonstrate just how difficult it is to (re-) envision the fluid parameters between humans and other animals encouraging us to engage in limitrophy on a daily basis.
Publication Date
5-23-2025
Publication Title
Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group; Routledge
First Page
185
Last Page
196
Recommended Citation
Moser, K. (2025). A Derridean Interpretation of Vercors’s Early Attempt to Problematize the Concept of the “Animal” in Les Animaux dénaturés. Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, 79(2), 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397709.2025.2475142
