Uncomfortable proximity. Literary technique, authorial provocations and dog whistles in Michel Houellebecq’s fiction

ABSTRACT

In 2002, following an interview with the magazine Lire where he described Islam as ‘la religion la plus con’, Michel Houellebecq was prosecuted, and eventually acquitted, for ‘injure raciale et incitation à la haine religieuse’. In discussions of Houellebecq’s case, supporters were quick to invoke the ‘special value’ of the literary space for the free discussion of ideas, however provocative or unpalatable. Houellebecq’s acquittal, and support from figures such as Salman Rushdie, have afforded the writer an unprecedented degree of literary freedom. Subsequent novels such as La Possibilité d’une île (2005) and Soumission (2015) show the author fully inhabiting this freedom in order to undertake a provocative critique of Islam. This article explores how both literary technique and authorial presence endorses the controversial ideas of his texts within Houellebecq’s writing and demonstrates how a movement from ambiguously undermining towards reinforcing those ideas can be observed. In particular, the framing of provocative ideas and assertions expounded in his fiction has become less robust throughout his career. This leads to, I suggest, a greater porosity between Houellebecq’s fiction and that of contemporary right-wing essayists such as Alain Finkielkraut and Renaud Camus.

RÉSUMÉ

En 2002, après une interview où il avait affirmé que l'islam était « la religion la plus con », Michel Houellebecq était poursuivi en justice. Autour de cette affaire, ses partisans ont invoqué les spécificités de la littérature, qui crée un espace spécifique au sein duquel un auteur peut librement mettre en scène des idées provocantes. La relaxe de Houellebecq lui a donné une liberté littéraire sans précédent. Parmi ses romans ultérieurs, La Possibilité d’une île (2005) et Soumission (2015), laissent entrevoir une figure auctoriale qui fait usage de cette liberté pour soutenir une critique provocatrice de l’islam. Cet article a pour but d'explorer la manière dont technique littéraire et présence auctoriale s’associent: par le biais d'une adhésion de principe à des idées scandaleuses, elles signalent l’évolution d'un style qui devient plus solide et plus univoque au fil du temps. On remarquera que les techniques déployées par l'auteur pour se protéger d'une association directe avec les idées exprimées sont devenues plus faibles au fur et à mesure de sa carrière. On observera enfin que les liens se font de plus en plus nets entre la fiction de Houellebecq et les travaux d’écrivains de droite, tels qu’Alain Finkielkraut et Renaud Camus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A novelist contributing to broader societal debates is, of course, not without precedent in French literature. For a history of the figure of the French intellectual, see (Sand 2016).

2. The quotation was highlighted by Pierre Assouline and discussed in his editorial, highlighting Houellebecq’s ‘aversion pour les arabes et les musulmans’ (Assouline 2001, 6).

3. This term was originally used by the French media to discuss a lower magnitude controversy which surrounded Les Particules élémentaires (Houellebecq 1998). For a consideration of this initial affaire, Cruickshank (2003) and Sweeney (2013).

4. The precedent here is the affaire surrounding Nicolas Jones-Gorlin’s Rose Bonbon (Paris: Gallimard, 2002), which is narrated from the perspective of its paedophile protagonist.

5. Although he was prosecuted, as noted above, for his comments in interview rather than the contents of his fiction.

6. A point also made by Louis Betty in his contribution to this issue.

7. Houellebecq was unhappy with what he saw as an invasion of privacy by Chemin. See, Chemin (2015) and Le Monde (2017).

8. Houellebecq’s 2016 acceptance speech for the Frank Schirrmacher Prize in Berlin also reinforces this argument. Here, again unframed by the conventions of literature, he sketches a scenario in contemporary France that mirrors that of Soumission: the complicity of French universities with ‘big money from the Gulf monarchies’ and the growth in modest dressing amongst young French women. He predicts: ‘the forward rush of Islam has only just begun’. I am grateful to Delphine Grass for alerting me to the existence of this speech. It was delivered in French, but only exists partially online. It was translated into German by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung before being translated to English and reprinted by The Europeans website at [https://theeuropeans.co/2016/10/01/michel-houellebecq-in-berlin], accessed 16 October 2018.