J. M. G. Le Clézio’s Deconstruction of the “Genesis Myth”: Conceptualizing a Decentered Biocentric Ethic

• In Event: Roundtable Session 106
  In Roundtable Session: Conceptualizing New Beginnings: Philosophical, Cosmic, and Personal Implications of the Ecological

Abstract

Reading J.M.G. Le Clézio is not only an exercise in compassion, but his texts also implore individuals to be more humble. Instead of conceptualizing the human race as the center of the universe, the Nobel laureate exposes the flaws of ideology that creates a superiority complex. In L’Extase Matérielle, the author reminds us that we are merely particles of matter that are part of a larger cosmic force. In an interconnected, interdependent universe, human beings have the same right to exist as anything else. The mentality that the remainder of the cosmos only exists to help us live more abundantly threatens to destroy the ecological equilibrium that sustains life itself. Le Clézio refers to this worldview as the ‘Genesis myth.’

Author

• Keith Moser, Mississippi State University