Le trajet méandreux de la carte et le territoire

Abstract

The vision of Michel Houellebecq as it is developed in La Carte et le territoire seems to follow different threads of Western philosophy during the twentieth century in its exploration of representation as a literary, pictorial and ideological process. A phenomenological approach appears to be plausible, but the ongoing destabilisation of homogeneity in Houellebecq’s novel opens a door to the work of Derrida and his notion of supplement. And ‘worstward ho’, even the menace of total catastrophe bursts in with a Deleuzian echo of integral dissemination. Nevertheless this is not Houellebecq’s final position because a utopian idealization marks the final section of the book. But this attitude with its air of posthuman projection shows eventually a perverse turn.