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References
1.
and quotes Dominique Noguez in `Le livre sans nom', La Nouvelle Revue Française, 555 (October 2000 ), 75 -100, 83 ).
2.
Debord, Commentaire sur la société du spectacle ( Paris: Gérard Lebovici , 1988 ).
3.
3 Pierre Bourdieu, Sur la Télévision suivi de L'Emprise du journalisme ( Paris: Liber-Raisons d'agir , 1996 ).
4.
4 Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, Impostures intellectuelles ( Paris: Odile Jacob , 1997 ).
5.
5 John Marks, `L'Affaire Sokal' in French Cultural Debates, ed. by John Marks and Enda McCaffrey ( Melbourne: Monash Romance Studies , 2001 ), 80 -93, 80 .
6.
6 Marks, 90.
7.
7 See Jean Baudrillard, Simulacres et simulations ( Paris: Galilée , 1985 ).
8.
8 Michel Houellebecq, Les Particules élémentaires ( Paris: Flammarion , 1998 ). Henceforth the novel will be referred to as Les Particules and further references to quotations are given in the text, denoted PE.
9.
9 Dominick LaCapra, Madame Bovary on Trial ( Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press , 1982 ).
10.
and the best-seller status of Catherine Millet's La Vie sexuelle de Catherine M ( Paris: Seuil , 2001 ) suggest that whilst these authors may not join Sade in the literary canon, graphic sex and sexual violence are unproblematically inscribed in the French field of literary production.
11.
11 Marion Van Renterghem, `Le procès Houellebecq', Le Monde (9 November 1998 ), 10 .
12.
12 Pierre Lepape, `Dernière station avant le désert', Le Monde des livres (28 August 1998 ), II .
13.
13 Van Renterghem, 10. Note that van Renterghem was a lone female voice in the clamour of the affaire , only later joined by Marie Redonnet in Art press , 244 (March 1999), thus pointing to the phallocentric structure of the French field of literary production.
14.
14 The polarization endemic in the debate is poignantly exemplified in the existence of two rival websites dedicated to Houellebecq. The first, Les Amis de Michel Houellebecq (http://www.houellebecq.info), was intended as a forum for literary debate but gave rise to a cyber-spat over the allegedly racist content of Renaud Camus' La Campagne de France ( Paris: Fayard , 2000 ). Following accusations of censorship on the AMH message board, a rival site, L'Amicale des Ennemis des Amis de Michel Houellebecq (http://aeamh.free.fr) was created, and vicious sniping between the two continues.
15.
15 Houellebecq, Plateforme ( Flammarion: Paris , 2001 ). In juxtaposition with a tender love story, the novel features what has been read by many critics as an apologia for sex tourism, and a critique of Islam. In an interview published in Lire in September 2001, the author launched a bitter attack on the religion, and stood trial for `injure raciale et incitation à la haine religieuse' in September 2002. The flames of controversy have been further fanned by Houellebecq's politically ambivalent interjections, epitomized at once by his use of rhetoric reminiscent of the far right and his support for Jean-Pierre Chevenement in the 2002 presidential elections.
16.
16 Houellebecq, Interventions ( Paris: Flammarion , 1998 ). Further references to quotations are given in the text, denoted I.
17.
17 See Gilles Lipovetsky, Le Crépuscule du devoir: l'éthique indolore des nouveaux temps démocratiques ( Paris: Gallimard , 1992 ).
18.
18 See Sokal and Bricmont, `Que se passe-t-il?', Libération, 18-19 October 1997 , p.5 .