Submission (novel)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Submission is a novel by Michel Houellebecq . It was published in French on January 7, 2015 under the title Soumission by the Paris publishing group Flammarion . The German translation of the novel was also published by DuMont Buchverlag in January 2015 .

action

The action takes place in France in 2022. A charismatic Muslim politician, Mohamed Ben Abbes, is gathering more and more voters. The Socialist Party (PS) and the Conservatives form an alliance with Ben Abbes to prevent the rise of the right National Front (FN) under Marine Le Pen . Ben Abbes becomes president , changes the secular constitution, introduces theocracy , sharia , patriarchy and polygamy .

The main character and narrator François is a literary scholar in his forties, a drinker and aged prematurely. He did his doctorate and published on the author Joris-Karl Huysmans , and he teaches at a Paris university. His relationships with much younger women, mostly students, are usually limited to one year, after which they leave him with the declaration that they have “met someone”. If he meets them again later, he regularly notices that they are old and lonely. When the novel begins, François is single again, but is still in loose contact with his ex-girlfriend Myriam. However, she informs him that her family will emigrate to Israel in view of the events in France.

After the election campaign began, civil war-like unrest broke out between the right on the one hand and Muslims, socialists and other political groups on the other. Houses, buses and cars go up in flames. The right-wing Identitarian Movement may want to start a civil war and infiltrate the army because it currently expects greater chances of victory than in the future. The unrest is not reported in the media. After the first ballot, the National Front comes before the Muslims and the Socialists. The Muslims and the socialists are conducting coalition negotiations, which remain secret, however, so that the population does not find out that the Islamic social order is to be gradually introduced in France. To the outside world, the Islamic presidential candidate is moderate in order to increase his election chances. At the same time, many French Jews are leaving the country because it is clear that the future government will either be led by the Front National or by the Muslims. The Jews are afraid of both. In the meantime, bloody clashes occur again during a demonstration, and the university is closed until further notice.

François leaves Paris and heads southwest without a specific destination. On his way he saw murdered people, but the media continued to neither report about the unrest nor about the dead. Apparently a news blackout has been put in place to prevent the right-wing National Front from getting voters. The next day it became known that there had been violent attacks on polling stations by both right-wing extremists and Islamists and that the second round of voting had to be postponed as a result. The only way to stop the National Front's path to power now is to unite behind the Islamic party. For the new ballot, the three big parties PS, UMP and UDI form an alliance with Ben Abbes, the bourgeois politician François Bayrou is to become part of the new government - this is exactly what a former intelligence officer who knows the Islamist scene very well, François had during a joint session Prophesied stay in Martel . After the Muslim candidate won the election in the second ballot, François returned to his apartment and noticed the first Islamic changes in society. Crime is falling, and so is unemployment as women are driven out of their jobs. Education and social spending are being cut radically, and women's clothing styles are becoming more conservative.

In this city palace (5 rue des Arènes) François visits the university rector Rediger. The writer and publicist Jean Paulhan lived here from 1940 until his death in 1968 .

When François looks through the mail, he finds that he has retired on a retirement salary that would otherwise have been expected twenty years later. He can at first make friends with this condition, but then realizes that he will soon succumb to alcohol and die. He soon breaks off a stay in a monastery in the country where he was once working on his dissertation because he cannot find a viable way of shaping his future life there. The order to get a scholarly edition of Huysmans' works provided something of a boost, at least in the short term. As the university lacks renowned scholars, a little later he was also offered the opportunity to work in his profession again - which means that he had to convert to Islam. Two professors of the Sorbonne (including the rector Rediger), who used to be close to the new right, Identitarian Movement, have already turned to Islam, in which they see their goals of an inegalitarian, authoritarian-patriarchal, tradition- and religion-related society better than theirs View of strongly secularized and powerless Christianity. According to Rector Rediger, the right-wing movements and Islam are very close in their goals.

The book ends with François' visions of what would happen if he accepted this offer: he then profited from the Islamization of France, earned significantly more as a lecturer after the seizure of power than before, and enjoyed the new subservience of his playmates, some of whom were underage. The fact that the women outside of the apartments would now always appear veiled, which initially bothered him, then no longer posed a problem, since, due to the dogma of “natural selection” in the “Ten Questions about Islam”, the representatives of the intellectual elite were allowed to to whom he could count himself, the most beautiful girls would automatically be brought in by the matchmakers; Polygamy is expressly allowed and encouraged.

The novel addresses two fears of today's political France: that of the extreme right on the one hand and of the Islamization of Europe on the other. Both the French and German titles refer to the meaning of Islam as the submission or total devotion of the believer.

Others

After the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo , which Houellebecq had dedicated its cover picture to, on the day the novel was published, the author broke off his promotion for his novel.

Characters and references in the plot

Gallimard publishing house
  • Marine Le Pen is the strongest political force in France in 2022. François Hollande has two terms as President; his designated successor is Manuel Valls , with whom the French socialists get their worst election result.
  • The figure of Robert Rediger , President of the University of Paris III in the novel , alludes to the philosopher Robert Redeker , who received death threats in 2006 for making statements critical of Islam.
  • The model of submission refers to the novel History of O (1954), written by Dominique Aury under the pseudonym Pauline Réage for her lover and employer Jean Paulhan at Gallimard . In Paulhan's Paris city palace, on the other hand, which was the meeting place of the resistant intellectuals during the occupation of France by the Nazi regime, now resides in the book Rediger.
  • In France, the ancient historian Stéphane Ratti pointed out that the political framework of submission is likely to have been influenced to a large extent by the book Le déclin by the Belgian scholar David Engels , published in Paris in 2013 . In his book, which was also translated into German in 2014, Engels pointed out the analogies between the identity crisis in European society and the decline of the Roman Republic and announced the emergence of a new Augustan system of rule, which also plays a central role in Houellebecq, with particular reference to Augustus.
  • In Germany, Gero von Randow pointed out the similarity of the plot to Jean Yanne's film Die Chinesen in Paris (1974). Thomas Steinfeld saw strong references to Jean Raspail's book Heerlager der Saints from 1973, in which "an armada from the Third World invades France and a morally and intellectually decrepit Western world easily submits".

reception

criticism

Like other works by the author, Submission was printed in very large editions and critically discussed by Parisian intellectuals. Alain Finkielkraut described Soumission as a “masterpiece” by a “great novelist of the possible”. In contrast, Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin criticized Houellebecq's "strange sense of humor", while President François Hollande commented immediately after the publication and criticized the author's "pessimism".

When presenting his novel at the lit.Cologne in Cologne , Houellebecq felt compelled to read out a statement in advance, given the events in Paris and possible Islamophobic readings. His novel is not Islamophobic . The novel originally had the conversion of a literary scholar who was concerned with Huysmans to Catholicism and should therefore be entitled "Conversion"; in carrying out this topic, however, he failed because of the current realities. At the same time he appealed to the freedom of art, which also legitimizes an Islamophobic work, and the freedom of expression , the self-assertion of which is the main motive of the currently demonstrated unity of the French nation: this should not be restricted with regard to religious feelings. Here he took sides for the heroic "stubbornness" of the authors of Charlie Hebdo. For him it is important not to allow himself to be captured by any side, neither the Front National nor the Islamists .

Jürg Altwegg attested Houellebecq's left-wing critics a lack of feeling for his “ irony and satire ”: The novel was “a farce of anti-fascism” and “satire on coming to terms with the past”: “It is a phenomenal, precise portrait of French society, especially its media and of the political class ”. Thomas Steinfeld noticed a "constructive flaw" in the novel. The work is “a hybrid between satire and utopia , with the result that the satirist Michel Houellebecq cannot be determined to have had a provocation in mind, while the dreamer Michel Houellebecq cannot be determined that his inventions are still invented be like the island of Liliput with Jonathan Swift ”.

Volker Weidermann said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : “ Submission is a book of fear and loneliness. It's about the love of literature ”. Christopher Schmidt looked at the book in the Süddeutsche Zeitung against the background of the attack on the editors of Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish supermarket : “Ultimately, he is an idealist in disguise, an idealist in the guise of a provocateur. And for this idealist, the fact that the middle class has moved closer together after the bloody deeds and refutes his horror scenario should be the best confirmation. "

The Berlin taz wrote: “Houellebecq has not become a real writer, as some in Liberation and Le Monde label him. No not at all. Because he sends his 'identity' natives of Europe into the clutches of Islam. In his attack, these converts remain arch-French reversible necks. ”In contrast, the author in the Austrian literary magazine Schreibkraft was found to have errors in content and interpretation with regard to Muslim belief and life. In addition, Islam is "reduced to a few common stereotypes that are known ad nauseam ( veil , polygamy , women in the house, men in government)".

On Friday , however, the focus is not on Islam, but rather describes the novel as a "variable, veritable university satire that satirizes the megalomania of European professors".

Audio book

An unabridged version with Christian Berkel as speaker was published as an audio book in 2015 . The title occupied in July 2015 No. 1 on the hr2 - hörbuchbestenliste and was responsible for the long list of the leaderboard 3/2015 Prize of the German Record Critics nominated.

radio play

Also in 2015 , Leonhard Koppelmann adapted and staged Houellebecq's novel as a radio play for SWR . The main role played Samuel Weiss , composed the music Rainer Romans using samples from Aleph -1 of Alva Noto / Rainer Romans.

theatre

In February 2016, a highly acclaimed monologue production with Edgar Selge premiered at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg , directed by Karin Beier .

In 2017 Matthias Gehren staged the play together with Thomas Blockhaus at the Vereinigte Bühnen in Krefeld , and it was revived in Mönchengladbach in February 2018 . Also in 2017, the dramatization of the novel was staged in the Neumarkt Theater in Zurich , directed by Katrin Hentschel .

At the Schauspielhaus Bochum was in 2019 one of Johan Simons staged stage version (played mostly as a double bill with a stage version of platform , which is based on a production of 2017 in cooperation with NTGent , the Belgian performance group Action Zoo Humain and the Belgian theater makers Chokri Ben Chikha was ). The Bochum production was invited to the NRW Theatertreffen 2019.

TV movie

The German public television program Das Erste produced the play as a television film based on the book and directed by Titus Selge a . A. with Matthias Brandt , André Jung , Alina Levshin , Edgar Selge , Catrin Striebeck and Bettina Stucky . It was first broadcast on June 6, 2018. Experimentally, scenes from the theater production at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg were interwoven with recordings at the original location in Paris as well as scenes from the area around the theater performance, while film recordings of the protests and riots against the G20 summit in Hamburg were used as a contemporary reference Recorded in 2017 .

Motion picture

In February 2020, another film adaptation of the work by Guillaume Nicloux with Jean-Paul Rouve in the leading role was announced at the Berlinale . The project was originally planned as a television series and is now set up as a feature film.

expenditure

literature

  • Wolfgang Asholt: "From terrorism to change through rapprochement: Houellebecq's 'Soumission'". In: Romance Studies , No. 3, 2016, pp. 119–136, ( online )
  • Agnieszka Komorowska: “Mais c'est d'une ambiguité étrange”: the reception of Michel Houellebecq's novel “Soumission” in France and Germany. In: Romance Studies , No. 3, 2016, pp. 137–169, ( online )
  • Kai Nonnenmacher: “Submission as Conversion: As-if conversions to Catholicism and Islam at Carrère and Houellebecq”. In: Romance Studies , No. 3, 2016, pp. 171–198, ( online ).
  • Mark Lilla : Paris, January 2015 . In: Mark Lilla: The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction . New York: New York Review Books, 2017 ISBN 1590179021 , pp. 105–129

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Anne Christine Heckmann: Debates about the new Houellebecq novel - Racism or successful satire? In: Tagesschau.de . January 7, 2015, archived from the original on January 7, 2015 ; accessed on January 8, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Kathrin Hondl: Biting portrait of French society. In: Kulturthema. swr2, January 7, 2015, accessed January 9, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Information on the novel on the DuMont publisher's website. DuMont, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  4. ^ Stefan Simons: Michel Houellebecqs vision. spiegel.de, January 6, 2015, accessed on January 7, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Houellebecq “quitte Paris pour se mettre au vert” et annule sa promotion. lemonde.fr , January 8, 2015, accessed January 9, 2015 (French). Charlie Hebdo: Houellebecq breaks off book promotion. buchreport.de , January 9, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b c d Christopher Schmidt: About the seductibility to extremism. Süddeutsche.de, January 16, 2015, accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Stéphane Ratti: Michel Houellebecq et l'empereur Auguste. Le Figaro, January 16, 2015, accessed January 16, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Gero von Randow: Nothing for intellectual cowards. zeit.de, January 5, 2015, accessed on January 7, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld: The West cannot be saved. Süddeutsche.de, January 7, 2015, accessed on January 9, 2015 .
  10. ^ Pourquoi Alain Finkielkraut a aimé le livre de Houellebecq. Causeur, January 5, 2015, accessed January 9, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Kim Willsher: Michel Houellebecq provokes France with story of Muslim president. The Guardian , December 16, 2014, accessed January 7, 2015 .
  12. ↑ A fearful vision of an Islamic France. dpa article on Handelsblatt.com , January 7, 2015, accessed on January 7, 2015 .
  13. ^ Joachim Güntner: Michel Houellebecq in Cologne. The egotist remains amused. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 21, 2015, accessed on January 21, 2015 . Jannis Brühl: Michel Houellebecq in Cologne. Praise to irresponsible art. Süddeutsche.de , January 20, 2015, accessed on January 21, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Jürg Altwegg: Houellebecq's new novel: Is it all meant in Iranian terms? faz.net , January 6, 2015, accessed January 7, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld: The West cannot be saved. Süddeutsche.de , January 7, 2015, accessed on January 9, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Volker Weidermann: Is he to blame? faz.net , January 12, 2015, accessed January 12, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Ruthard Stäblein: Michel Houellebecq's new novel / impaled fears. taz.de , January 12, 2015, accessed February 5, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Ingrid Thurner: Mr. Houellebecq, it doesn't work that way. In: typist . 29 (playful), 2016, pp. 62–64, accessed on February 20, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Remigius Bunia: Submission. Retrieved November 19, 2018 .
  20. ↑ der-audio-verlag.de (June 11, 2017)
  21. ↑ Michel Houellebecq: Submission . SWR 2. Radio play adaptation and direction Leonhard Koppelmann. DAV, Berlin, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86231-596-3
  22. ↑ Werner Theurich: Theater premiere "Submission" in Hamburg: Edgar and the rattle of excitement. Spiegel Online , February 7, 2016, accessed February 7, 2016 .
  23. ^ Submission - Theater Krefeld Mönchengladbach. Retrieved May 1, 2018 .
  24. ^ Theater Neumarkt: Submission - Events - Platform 13: Maximus - Theater Neumarkt. Retrieved May 1, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Film Wednesday in the First: Submission. In: ARD.de . Retrieved June 11, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Michael G. Meyer: Film adaptation of the novel "Submission" in the First - Diabolic Monologues. In: deutschlandfunk.de . Retrieved June 11, 2018 .
  27. ^ "Soumission" by Michel Houellebecq sera adapté au cinéma. In: livreshebdo.fr. Livres Hebdo, accessed on February 22, 2020 (French).