Some Small Discrepancy: Jean-Christophe-Bailly's Creaturely Ontology

Abstract

This extended review essay on Bailly's first major work in English translation, The Animal Side, situates Bailly in the continuum of Continental philosophy on the topics of animality and animal ontology, from Rilke to Heidegger, Derrida and Deleuze. Exploring Bailly's linking of thought and vision and his insistence on the pivotal role of animals in the emergence of European art and image-making, the essay argues that the political dimension, implicit in Bailly's text, nevertheless remains underdeveloped. This points to a broader concern within Continental theory: the need to connect new human and animal ontologies with ethical and political normative models for the effective articulation of post-anthropocentric collectivities.