This article offers a reading of a representation of Tyrannosaurus rex that was popular in Brazil during the early 1990s. The aim is to expose the instabilities in the representation of the animal, which prevent any access to a fixed or essential meaning. It proceeds from the assumption that deconstruction is already taking place within the material, but can be grasped through attentive reading. In dialogue with Jacques Derrida’s non-concepts, the resources that reinforce the perception of sovereignty and threat are identified, including deferrals, differences, exclusions, framings, and the use of colours, which tend to lead to a binary opposition separating Tyrannosaurus rex from other dinosaurs. The interior of the representation is read as already containing the exterior, since each observation refers to repertoires that exceed aspects of the animal’s biological life. In this sense, the representation constitutes an intersection between science and fiction, including artistic freedom and market interests. The main contribution of the article is to demonstrate how an artefact of science communication can open itself to multiple readings without full closure, which becomes even more intriguing when dealing with a species extinct for millions of years, yet remaining as a present absence, or an absent presence.
David Figueiredo de Almeida (Thu,) studied this question.