The hearerly text: Sea shells on the sea shore

On Puns: The Foundation of Letters

Abstract: Previously Published by Basil Blackwell, Inc. 432 Park Avenue South, Suite 1503, New York, NY 10016. Copyright 2005 by Jonathan Culler. All rights reserved.

Vendredi ou Les limbes du Pacifique

Abstract: Michel Tournier's Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique presents an odyssey of Robinson's personal development which explicitly tackles the philosophical and psychological problematic of Self and Other a problematic which, as we know, is magnified and thrown into relief by the literal isolation of the protagonist. I would like to chart this particular Robinson's search for a solution to the problems of solitude and alterity by considering two of the novel's narrative strands, tracing, on the one hand, Robinson's physical and erotic development, and on the other hand the evolution of his relationship with language. I shall first point to the type of personal evolution these two themes appear to portray, and then focus a little more closely on the novel's conclusion, to see whether initial appearances are fully borne out. Robinson's sexual development constitutes perhaps the dominant narrative of Tournier's novel. When he first arrives on the island, he is already married and the father of a family, and his