Wine in Houellebecq: Cultural transgression or literary device?. (February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dutton, Jacqueline
• Other Names: Campbell Françoise guest-editor.; Dutton Jacqueline guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: French cultural studies. Volume 31:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 73
• Page End: 90
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Subjects: Michel Houellebecq -- interpersonal relations -- national identity -- social status -- wine; France -- Civilization -- 1945- -- Periodicals; 306.094405
• DOI: 10.1177/0957155819893586
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-1558

Abstract

Michel Houellebecq has a reputation as a heavy drinker and many of his protagonists mirror this tendency. This article focuses specifically on wine, asking whether the consumption of wine, both in his writing and in representations of his life, constitutes a simple cultural transgression, mainly via the quantities imbibed, or whether in fact wine is used as a complex literary device, a symbolic marker of national identity, social status and interpersonal relations. Tracing the presence and analysing the significance of wine in Houellebecq's seven novels published to date reveals new ways to decode and interpret the author's work through the prism of this product and its rich semantic field.