Introduction. ‘La honte de la France’: Michel Houellebecq’s cultural transgressions

Abstract

Michel Houellebecq’s cultural transgressions are widely recognised in media and criticism as contributing to his renown as an author today. The deeper significance of cultural transgressions in Houellebecq’s work is a rich seam for exploration, which was undertaken during a symposium on 29 September 2018. This article traces the conceptualisation of our approach and develops a framework for understanding transgression in the context of Houellebecq’s work. It then introduces six of the papers presented at the symposium which examine the notion of transgression not only as the process of crossing social and generic boundaries, but also as a means of assuming and overcoming the constraints placed upon contemporary literary works. Rather than assigning Houellebecq to a given artistic, cultural or political viewpoint, we ask what we can learn from Houellebecq’s cultural transgressions.