Work and Leisure
Work and Leisure
Through the study of Plateforme (2001) and La Carte et le territoire (2010), this chapter presents Houellebecq as a singularly incisive analyst of the role of work in contemporary western culture. These novels suggest both that work has overwhelmed the lives and identities of westerners, yet at the same time that work continues to provide a source of dignity and pride, a question explored through the complex relationship between work and art in La Carte et le territoire. Meanwhile, the ambiguous value of leisure is interrogated through the satirical portrait of the tourist industry in both novels, examining the ways in which the culture of tourism seeks to commodify our time and our pleasure, just as it reifies and exploits national and regional identities.
Keywords: Plateforme/Platform, La Carte et le territoire/The Map and the Territory, Work, Tourism, Sex tourism, Globalisation
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