'GORGEOUS MONSTROSITY': DERRIDA'S DECONSTRUCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE POSTMODERNIST TOOL IN ANALYSING ALASDAIR GRAY'S POOR THINGS

The article is a postmodernism interpretation of Alasdair Gray's acclaimed novel "The Poor Things". The main motifs in the novel are re-read in the light of the theories of Jacques Derrida and Ludwig Wittgenstein. At the centre of the analysis stands the intertextual and deconstructive reading of the role of the main heroine, Bella Baxter. As the novel's 'gorgeous monstrosity', Bella is a prototype construct embedded in the linguistic nature of reality. In Gray's postmodern vision, Bella embodies the main concerns of the novel: the blurring of the boundaries between concepts (such as centre/periphery; memory/forgetfulness; life/death), and the continuous questioning of their definitions.