This book presents a close reading of four texts by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, guided by Gilles Deleuzes concept of metamorphosis, «becoming-animal». In his critique of anthropocentrism and Western reason, Le Clézio dismantles the opposition between mind and matter, language and life, developing Henri Bergsons notion of the living, «le vivant». A philosophical and ecological role is accorded poetic, sensorial expression, which is the means of communication between the multiple forms of life. For instance, the protagonist may become a bird: in their flight they form intercultural relations calling to mind the texts of Édouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau. Importantly, Le Clézio never divorces the poetic from the socio-political. The text Bitna, sous le ciel de Séoul, for example, unfolds against the background of the war between North and South Korea. Through the figure of the war-traumatised homeless Algerian, Béchir, The Story of Dodo emerges as one of the most powerful critics of nationalism and capitalism ever written.

Bronwen Martin is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London, where she has taught for several years. She is the author of books and articles on Le Clézio, European literature, critical discourse analysis and semiotics. She specialises in contemporary literature and philosophy, at the same time exploring the interface between the poetic and the political. Her research has been published in journals and her most recent monograph is The Fiction of J.M.G. Le Clézio: A Postcolonial Reading (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2012).