Laughing in the monkey’s face Cratylism and verbal invention in the Quart Livre (Rabelais) and Leben Fibels (Jean Paul)

In Leben Fibels, Adam is opposed to the monkey as the correct nomination of the world since it is the wrong, erratic, or absurd use of language. The Quart Livre upends this perspective and mocks the conviction that a transparent nomination—cratylic—of the world is possible, which is a foolish singerie. It is, however, the object of a secret nostalgia that invites us to distinguish between cratylism of conviction, which is ridiculed, and cratylism of invention, the ludic instrument of the former’s critique which it transcends.