Tourist Traps Confounding Expectations in Michel Houellebecq’s Plateforme

Abstract

The controversy surrounding Michel Houellebecq’s third novel, Plateforme, has tended to overshadow critical examination of the text and, in particular, its engagement with contemporary tourist practices and the ways in which they inform and reflect Western attitudes to leisure time. This article illustrates how analysis of the novel’s portrayal of the tourist, and the ambiguous discourse that surrounds this figure, can reveal a certain depth and complexity in the novel’s contentious exploration of sex tourism and contemporary global relations. In literary terms, Plateforme’s play with its generic identity is a useful starting point for re-evaluating the criteria used to bracket fiction within distinct categories. Finally, acknowledging the text’s critical value can also provide an effective strategy for readers concerned with responding to the novel’s unquestionably offensive content.