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This is a Literature Review study.

August 25, 2025

The Orientalized, Americanized, and techno-fantasized female body: non-Western women in Michel Houellebecq’s Plateforme , Soumission , and Sérotonine

Key Points

Non-Western women are depicted in a sexualized manner by Caucasian male characters in Houellebecq's novels.
Orientalism themes are evident, illustrating how male fantasies project onto women of different ethnic backgrounds.
Globalization impacts the portrayal of women, with capitalistic commodities and technologies playing a significant role.
The works provoke discourse on the relationship between ethnicity and representation in contemporary literature.

Abstract

Those of Michel Houellebecq’s works that have triggered social and political controversies often depict non-Western women, such as Thai, Muslim, and Japanese women, in relation to Caucasian male characters who express their dissatisfaction with Western women who represent sexual and social emancipation. Houellebecq’s strategy to employ non-Western women reflects Orientalism, which projects male fantasies on “otherness.” However, this dichotomy between the West and the Orient is untenable given the globalization of American culture, depicted in Houellebecq’s novels as hedonistic. Analyzing the depictions of non-Western women in Houellebecq’s Plateforme (2001), Soumission (2015), and Sérotonine (2019), and their relationship to capitalistic commodities, visual media, and contemporary technologies, this essay will delve into how Houellebecq’s Caucasian, French male characters sexualize non-Western women in varying ways based on their ethnicity.

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