Réactions à la réaction. Brèves considérations sur le sens de l'épiphrase dans Les particules élémentaires de Michel Houellebecq

Abstract

The literary work of the contemporary French novelist Michel Houellebecq has been considered by some French criticism (and abroad) as the symptom of present French thought declinism.
For many authors, his texts are ambiguous because they describe a decadent society, based on elementary relationship, but at the same time, they subscribe to the characters’ points of view.
José Domingues de Almeida illustrates these contradictions in the novel Les parti-cules élémentaires.