La possibilité de l’espoir chez Michel Houellebecq

Abstract

The possibility of hope in Michel Houellebecq Often considered depressive, Michel Houellebecq’s writing seems to be at the antipodes of hope, even if fragile. In this article, we will attempt to explore the three levels of hope in the author’s work. Hope in Houellebecq’s writing is first presented in a derisory way as a variant of an illusion. It constitutes an evil associated with sexual desires in contemporary hyper-liberalist society. Then, the author stages a positivist utopia, that of immortal neo-humans. But hope does not exist in this post-human society. Finally, by freeing himself from all illusory hopes, the author intends to seek hope in the present, in the manner of Schopenhauerian contemplation. He uses an approach that is both clinical and pathetic and gives a new form to hope that hopes for the unhoped-for.