The paradoxes of the parasite. The qui perd gagne of the human (revisited)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article I shall explore the development of Michel Serres’s understanding of the human parasite, starting from The Parasite (1980) and The Natural Contract (1990), through to Hominescence (2001). I shall consider whether the development that I trace marks a progression in the sophistication and complexity of his thought or if, on the contrary, it could be seen as marked in some ways by regressive features. I shall compare Serres’s parasite with Lacanian jouissance: it brings the gift of death and thereby creates life in so far as it is worth living. Ultimately it exemplifies again the paradoxes of the qui perd gagne mechanism: relations construct the ego but in ecstasy the ego is again lost; loss becomes gain; relation precedes being. The recurrent question ‘who am I?’ is answered by Serres in poetic form: I am a multiple mosaic, I am a multiplicity.