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.     

AGAINST POWER? DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN ACQUISITIVE RESISTANCE AND SUBVERSION

Critiques of contemporary political‐economic formations, while grounded in an array of theoretical traditions, have often centered on strategies for relocating power (as embodied in accumulated wealth, control of labor and corporate entities, or the state) in institutions that are nominally more egalitarian or democratic. Such alternative institutions are intended to better represent those who have been historically harmed by the use of power. This article argues for an analytical distinction between such strategies of capturing power on behalf of those without it, and strategies for reducing power differentials directly or annihilating the capacity to accumulate power. We adopt the analytical term subversion to describe these latter efforts to reduce the intensity of, and undermine the capacity to reproduce or deepen, power relationships. Rather than focusing on redistribution or inversion of asymmetrical power relations to benefit the disempowered, subversive strategies work toward decreasing the possibility of accumulating power or, in the extreme case, completely evacuating existing unequal power relations. Thinking about political engagement in terms of limiting the possibility of asymmetrical power relationships (regardless of who holds that power) helps to illuminate a distinction between reactive politics against injustice and proactive politics that pursue alternative, increasingly just conceptual norms. We draw on threads in critical, political, and urban geographies to articulate a particularly geographic concept of “fleeing‐in‐place” as subversive resistance to hegemony, the undermining of the possibility of asymmetrical socio‐spatial power relations within existing contemporary political economies. We propose strategies for research that better highlight the differences between resistance and subversion.     

Clearing the United States forests: pivotal years 1810–1860

The presence of forests and efforts to clear and utilize them have been constant motifs in the landscape, livelihood and life of the United States since first European settlement. Taking a long view of forest destruction and use, the years from about 1810 to 1860 were crucial and pivotal in the development of new trends, patterns and perceptions. During that half century the United States was transformed from a predominantly self-sufficient rural economy and society to a more commercial, industrialized, urban one. The major impacts on forests were agricultural clearing, clearing for domestic fuel, industry and mechanical energy, and cutting for constructional lumber. The ubiquity and abundance of wood retarded the adoption of new technology in industry and transport. But as felling increased towards the end of the 1860s the aesthetic, recreational and environmental qualities of forests came to be more deeply appreciated and concern was expressed about the depletion of the resource.     

Rare animals at a Mississippian chiefly compound: the Irene Mound site (9CH1), Georgia,USA

ABSTRACT

The Irene Mound site (9CH1) was a Middle and Late Mississippian site (ca. AD 1150–1450) situated on a bluff overlooking the lower Savannah River, Georgia (USA), a few kilometers upstream from the Atlantic Ocean. The 2.4 ha site consisted of a sequence of superimposed layers referred to as temple mounds, as well as a burial mound, a rotunda, a few residences, and other structures. It is interpreted as the residence of a chiefly lineage. The presence of animals rare or absent in other precolonial coastal assemblages distinguishes the Irene assemblage from others along the coast. Some of the animals exhibit atypical, even dangerous, behavior, others have elaborate feathers or fine fur, and many are notable coastal fishers. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) specimens in the assemblage are dominated by portions from the body. Irene may provide a zooarchaeological standard for assessing evidence of site functions and status in other coastal assemblages.     

The distribution and sources of archaeological pitchstone in Britain

Pitchstone is a glassy volcanic rock, distinguishable from obsidian by having a higher water content. It forms lava flows and minor intrusions at several centres within the British Tertiary Volcanic Province (BTVP) in the west of Scotland and Ireland. Pitchstone artifacts and waste pieces have been recorded from 101 archaeological localities in Scotland and northern England, ranging in time from possibly Mesolithic to Bronze Age. To characterize the sources, 17 pitchstone samples from 11 sources within the BTVP were analysed for major elements by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and for trace elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). 28 pitchstone pieces from 22 archaeological sites were analysed, mainly non-destructively, by INAA and interpreted as having originated from Arran sources. The Arran sources are divided into four petrographic types; the Corrygills, Tormore, Glen Shurig and Glen Cloy Types. Petrographic study of 15 archaeological samples indicated that three were of Corrygills type and two were of Tormore type. The remainder were less confidently attributed to the petrographic types distinguished. Arran pitchstone is found as far as 300 km from the Arran sources, at the chambered tomb of Ord North in Highland.     

The distribution and sources of archaeological obsidian from southern France

One-hundred-and-sixty-two pieces of obsidian have been found at 50 archaeological localities in southern France. The distribution is concentrated in the Rhône Valley, but includes sites in Drôme and in southwest France. The obsidian is mainly from sites of the Chassey culture (4th and 3rd millennium Neolithic), but there is one Impressed Ware site (Early Neolithic) and four Copper Age sites with obsidian. Only a small proportion of the obsidian (31 pieces) consists of waste pieces, providing little evidence for on-site working. 10 pieces of obsidian were analysed by instrumental neutron activation analysis to determine their geological provenance. Seven pieces proved to be from the Sardinian SA source, one from Lipari, and two from Pantelleria. Chronologically there is some division between sources used: all three pieces of Liparian obsidian so far identified from southern France, in this work and by earlier researchers, belong to Early Chassey contexts, and the two Pantellerian pieces are from a Copper Age dolmen. Sardinian and Liparian obsidian probably reached France by way of northern Italy. where both types were in use in contemporary cultures. The two Pantellerian pieces are evidence of some type of contact between France and the southern Mediterranean in the Copper Age, despite earlier suggestions of a very restricted distribution for the Pantellerian source. Obsidian was probably imported to southern France with other goods since the small amounts used would not warrant a separate trading network for obsidian alone.