Le corps du monstre sans-papiers

Abstract

The essay seeks to account for the contrast between the prosthetic body of the posthuman and the suffering body of the illegal immigrant. To do so, it follows the path of the literary tradition, first the dystopia of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, then the question of the monstrosity of Frankenstein’s monster. The answer suggested is that such monstrosity is, in the terms of Althusser’s theory of ideology, the result of a failed interpellation, with the consequent failure of the monster’s full subjectivity. The essay then proceeds with the question of the precarious lives of illegal immigrants. It aims to show that, although they are the victims of hostile forms of interpellation or of a lack of interpellation, they are nevertheless subjects and as such capable of counter-interpellating the institutions that seek to exclude them. This will be done with help of Enrique Dussel’s ethics of liberation.

Keywords

• Louis Althusser
• prosthetic body
• Dracula
• dystopia/utopia
• ethics of liberation
• Frankenstein