Course overview
Michel Houellebecq is without any doubt one of the most influential and controversial authors of the moment. His monothematic auto-fictional novels follow a poetics formulated in various interviews and essays. Houellebecq regards the modernization of the Occident, starting in the Late Middle Ages, as a story of moral and social decay. In this regard, the current expansion of neo-liberalism, considered as an “extension of the area of struggle” (Whatever, 1994), is no more than another step towards the final dissolution of society. 
Houellebecq’s protagonists find themselves in a dead-end. They realize the disadvantages of individualism as well as the loss of moral standards and the sheer impossibility to lead a happy life. Still, in post-religious and post-ideological times they are not able to escape their condition. The aim of the course is to point out the references of Houellebecq’s literary program to philosophical (Foucault) and sociological (Beck) works as well as to read his novels as violent objections to an idea of progress that emerged in the European Enlightenment.

Learning outcomes of the course
Thematic reading, application of theory (discourse analysis, sociological studies), discussion
and joint presentation of subjects, essay writing

Teaching methods
Moderated discussions, directed study

Evaluation methods
Active participation (20%), group work (20%), paper (30%), essay (30%)

Bibliography
Michel Houellebecq: Whatever (1994) – in part.
Michel Houellebecq: Atomized (1998) – in part.
Michel Foucault: The Government of Self and Others: Lectures at the Collège de France
1982-1983 (2010) – in part.
Ulrich Beck: Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity [1997] (1992) – in part.