Boundary issues and beyond: the secret life of monsters

Abstract

This article is written primarily within the Derridean frame of différance, his composite term which alludes to both “deferral” and “difference” and challenges Ferdinand Saussure’s notion of language, which the latter saw as stable. In its place Jacques Derrida offers another convention – of engaged delay between signifier and referent – a “form of critical dialogue” with language (Johnson1997: 53), from which more significant meaning (and action) may flow. Derrida speaks of “oscillation between possibilities” (Derrida 1988: 148), indicating that the interplay between signifier and referent is continuous and confirming the denial of ontological certainty, which is central to postmodern thought. This article opens with a theoretical section on the issue of monsters in general, and then moves to a discussion of two texts, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade runner. These texts, which are closely related, both raise current issues about the potential intelligence of robotic entities, which is causing growing unease in many quarters.