From the Spectacle to the Striptease: Houellebecq, Beigbeder and Media Ambivalence

Citation

Harris A (2022) From the Spectacle to the Striptease: Houellebecq, Beigbeder and Media Ambivalence. Modern and Contemporary France, 30 (3), pp. 345-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639489.2022.2060199

Abstract
This article addresses the media ambivalence of contemporary authors Frédéric Beigbeder and Michel Houellebecq who voice con- cern for the purported diminishing status of literature and the author within a mass media marketized context, while concurrently enga- ging in highly visible ways with the very media and commercializa- tion at the core of their criticisms. Analysing their works and interviews, and employing a theoretical framework that includes Debord, Angenot, Meizoz, and Baudrillard, this article explores their assertions on the status of literature, investigating them in relation to their media activity, and responds to Philippe Vilain’s proclamation of a crisis of literature. Firstly, this article addresses the ambivalence of these authors’ posturing across various domains before focusing upon how it manifests in relation to media. Secondly, it demonstrates how they describe the role and status of literature by comparing it to other media, from Houellebecq’s discussion of cultural values in Baudrillardian and Debordian Spectacular terms to Beigbeder’s com- parison of the author to a ‘strip-teaseuse’. It then shows how this conceptualization influences their authorship. Finally, examining their media activity, this ambivalence is shown to have productive outcomes by impacting the creation, production, understanding and reception of their works, consolidating their literary fame.

Journal
Modern and Contemporary France: Volume 30, Issue 3