Waltham-Smith, Naomi R. (2021) Homofaunie : non-human tonalities of listening in Derrida and Cixous. Word and Text - A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics, XI . pp. 68-82. doi:10.51865/jlsl.2021.05 ISSN 2247-9163.

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Abstract

In L’animal que donc je suis Jacques Derrida suggests that the question of what would be proper to the animal should ‘change tune’. I read this extraordinary passage, in which Derrida calls for us to lend an ear to an ‘unheard-of music’ that neither emancipates the non-human nor condemns it to inarticulate noise, in conjunction with the nexus of animality, telephony and the cri de la littérature that unfolds in Hélène Cixous’s writing, exploring the significant role assumed by the sonorous in these descriptions of non-human life. For Cixous, the telephonic power of near-instantaneous substitution and of prostheticity is inseparable from the sounds produced by the coterie of animals that populate the writings of these two authors. What is intriguing is that this bestiary is almost always said with a certain homonymy or homophony. Hence this article traces what I dub an ‘homofaunie’ echoing Cixous’s series of puns and neologisms such as ‘(t)elefaun’ and ‘(t)elephantasy’ that capture Derrida’s attention. The article asks what is at stake for theorizing non-human life – not just animal but also plant and so-called inanimate life – if the mode of questioning is to be redirected by a specifically aural attunement in which listening itself is retuned under the guidance of untranslatable homophony.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies
SWORD Depositor:	Library Publications Router
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Animals (Philosophy), Animals in literature, Nature in literature, Cixous, Hélène, 1937- -- Criticism and interpretation, Derrida, Jacques -- Criticism and interpretation
Journal or Publication Title:	Word and Text - A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics
Publisher:	Universitatea Petrol-Gaze din Ploiesti
ISSN:	2247-9163
Official Date:	December 2021
Dates:	Date Event December 2021 Published
Volume:	XI
Page Range:	pp. 68-82
DOI:	10.51865/jlsl.2021.05
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit:	1 March 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access:	1 March 2022
Open Access Version:	Publisher

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