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Houellebecq — The Wreckage of Liberation

Abstract Examining principally his prose fiction, this paper considers the representation in Michel Houellebecq's work of questions raised by modern movements of sexual liberation. Specifically, with reference to the presence of women in his work, it addresses the status of apparently wilfully offensive material, within an œuvre which seems to close down the space of critical discussion by anticipating and ironizing possible objections as it goes along. The paper describes the misogyny and anti-feminism to be found within Houellebecq's texts, and situates these within his general critique of the drive to self-fulfilment, which, for him, characterizes the contemporary Western world. On the basis of this critique, the possibility is then considered that Houellebecq may be ironically citing the offensive material he presents, in order to denounce its tendency to egocentric objectification; evidence for this possibility, principally in the shape of the various framing techniques used within Houellebecq's fictions, is duly analysed. Such framing techniques, however, prove intermittent, leaving an inconclusive stand-off between troubling material and its inconsistent frame. Using Houellebecq's model of art as a 'peeling', the article concludes by suggesting that this stand-off represents Houellebecq's figuration of the contemporary status of 'sexual liberation': as so much wreckage, ruined but unavoidable.