Solutions to the problems of Western civilisation in the novels of Michel Houellebecq

Abstract

This thesis argues that the novels of controversial French author Michel Houellebecq not only diagnose profound problems in contemporary Western civilisation, but also envisage the possibility of resolving them. Many studies do not believe that Houellebecq’s novels propose any genuine solutions, and those that do arguably do not take into consideration the extent to which solutions in the novels emerge through a sustained reflection on the underlying causes of contemporary social problems. Previous studies have understandably focused on problems such as social atomisation, commodification of individuals as objects of erotic consumption, the breakdown of community and family life and the loss of transcendental values. However, these studies have tended to consider these problems within their specific social context. This thesis, in contrast, aims to show that Houellebecq’s novels frame contemporary social phenomena within a much broader biological and historical perspective. Taking this approach, it reveals that Houellebecq’s novels are able to envisage solutions precisely because they look beyond an apparently intractable social reality to its conceivably modifiable biological and historical bases. The thesis focuses on the following four novels: Les Particules elementaires (1998), La Possibilite d’une ile (2005), La Carte et le territoire (2010) and Soumission (2015). After situating Houellebecq’s novels within a naturalistic tradition in the introduction, it shows, through a close reading of Les Particules elementaires and La Possibilite d’une ile, how Houellebecq envisages the creation of posthuman beings through the use of speculative biotechnology as a possible, albeit problematic, solution to the problems listed above. The analysis of these two novels reveals that no solution is possible unless it modifies human biology or involves a historical bifurcation away from the West’s centuries-old Enlightenment tradition. Consistent with this, our probing of the role of art and authenticity in La Carte et le territoire leads us to conclude that the novel does not envisage any viable alternatives for contemporary Western civilisation in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, Islam and a return to traditional, patriarchal values, as imagined in Soumission, does represent a possible solution as it represents a radical rejection of Western values. The thesis argues that, in spite of obvious differences, the theistic solution in Soumission shares many essential features with the posthuman solution such as the promise of individual immortality and the deflation of personal liberty. Without denying the specifically literary qualities in Houellebecq’s œuvre, this thesis contends that Houellebecq’s novels, in the tradition of 19th-century naturalist writers such as Zola, are relevant to contemporary Western society in the “real world” and should not be confined to the realm of fiction. The conclusion explores this real-world relevance by means of a comparison between ideas in the novels and ideas expressed by Houellebecq in non-fiction and interviews. By delineating their core ideology and exploring the solutions they propose, the thesis opens the way for further real-world engagement with the ideas in Houellebecq’s novels in the context of broader debates about Western civilisation, its discontents, and its future fate.