Les anti-utopies insulaires de Michel Houellebecq et Jean-Philippe Toussaint
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Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Wydawnictwo Werset
Abstract
Les personnages de Michel Houellebecq et Jean-Philippe Toussaint finissent, dans leur grande majorité, par s’extraire d’un monde social et géographique dont ils peinent à supporter les règles et les limites. Dans ce contexte désenchanté, le retrait vers des îles se présente comme une solution légitime. Si elles apparaissent dans un premier temps comme des alternatives aux affres de la métropole, Lanzarote et l’île d’Elbe représentent moins des utopies décrivant des sociétés idéales que des non-lieux relégués à une acceptation étymologique du terme : le lieu de nulle part ou qui n’est en aucun lieu. Les deux auteurs ne cessent ainsi de jouer avec les codes de l’utopie insulaire, en les déchargeant de l’histoire et des références littéraires qui lui sont habituellement associées. L’article se propose d’analyser les effets et les manifestations des anti-utopies insulaires de Houellebecq et Toussaint, dans un monde dont on a mesuré les limites et la finitude des ressources.
The characters created by Michel Houellebecq and Jean-Philippe Toussaint end up by extracting themselves from our social and geographical world whose rules and limits are too difficult to bear. In this context, retreating to existing islands appears to be a legitimate solution. If, at first glance, they seem to be alternatives to the throes of the metropolis, Lanzarote and the island of Elba do not represent utopias as ideal societies but as non-places in the etymological sense of the term: the place of no-where or which is in no place. The two authors do not cease playing with the codes of the history and the literary references which are usually associated with the concept. The article aims to analyze the effects and manifestations of Houellebecq's and Toussaint's anti-utopian islands, in a world whose limits and finitude of resources have been measured.
The characters created by Michel Houellebecq and Jean-Philippe Toussaint end up by extracting themselves from our social and geographical world whose rules and limits are too difficult to bear. In this context, retreating to existing islands appears to be a legitimate solution. If, at first glance, they seem to be alternatives to the throes of the metropolis, Lanzarote and the island of Elba do not represent utopias as ideal societies but as non-places in the etymological sense of the term: the place of no-where or which is in no place. The two authors do not cease playing with the codes of the history and the literary references which are usually associated with the concept. The article aims to analyze the effects and manifestations of Houellebecq's and Toussaint's anti-utopian islands, in a world whose limits and finitude of resources have been measured.
Description
Keywords
Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Michel Houellebecq, anti-utopie, île, architecture
Citation
"Quêtes littéraires" 2021, nº 11, s. 181-195