Submission (French: Soumission) is a novel by French writer Michel Houellebecq.[1] The French edition of the book was published on 7 January 2015 by Flammarion, with German (Unterwerfung) and Italian (Sottomissione) translations also published in January.[2][3] The book instantly became a bestseller in France, Germany and Italy.[4][5] The English edition of the book, translated by Lorin Stein, was published on 10 September 2015.[6]
The novel's narrator is François, a middle-aged literature professor at Paris 3 and specialist in Huysmans, who in 2022 feels he is at the end of his sentimental and sexual lives – composed largely of year-long liaisons with his students. It has been years since he did any valuable university work. France is in the grip of political crisis – in order to stave off a National Front victory, the Socialists ally with the newly formed Muslim Brotherhood Party, with additional support from the Union for a Popular Movement, formerly the main right-wing party. They propose the charming Islamic candidate Mohammed Ben-Abbes for the presidency against the National Front leader Marine Le Pen. In despair at the emerging political situation, and the inevitability of antisemitism becoming a major force in French politics, the parents of François's young and attractive Jewish girlfriend, Myriam, emigrate to Israel taking her along with them. His mother and father die. He fears that he is heading towards suicide, and takes refuge at an abbey situated in the town of Ligugé; it is also where his literary hero, Huysmans, became a lay member.
Ben-Abbes wins the election, and becomes President of France. He pacifies the country and enacts sweeping changes to French laws, privatizing the Sorbonne, thereby making François redundant with full pension as only Muslims are now allowed to teach there. He also ends gender equality, allowing polygamy. Several of François's intellectually-inferior colleagues, having converted to Islam, get good jobs and make arranged marriages with attractive young wives. The new president campaigns to enlarge the European Union to include North Africa, the Muslim Levant and Turkey, with the aim of making it a new Roman Empire with the now-Islamicized France at its lead. In this new, different society, with the support of the powerful politician Robert Rediger, the novel ends with François poised to convert to Islam and the prospect of a second, better life, with a prestigious job, and wives chosen for him.
Controversy
The book generated controversy and criticism for its portrayal of Islam.[9] In advance of the novel's publication, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared, "France is not Michel Houellebecq . . . it's not intolerance, hatred, fear."[10] Lydia Kiesling, writing for Slate, stated, "There is a way in which Submission is not, strictly speaking, Islamophobic. But it does Aylan Kurdi no favors."[11]The New York Times likewise argued Submission "plays on French fears of terrorism, immigration and changing demographics."[12]
Houellebecq commented on the novel in an interview with The Paris Review:
… I can't say that the book is a provocation — if that means saying things I consider fundamentally untrue just to get on people's nerves. I condense an evolution that is, in my opinion, realistic.[1]
Rob Doyle of The Irish Times found the themes of the book favourable to Islam, stating Houellebecq "suggests that yielding to the rule of Islam, with its reassuring social and sexual hierarchies, might be a good option for an otherwise terminal Europe."[10]Steven Poole, writing for The Guardian, noted that the book was "arguably, not primarily about politics at all. The real target of Houellebecq's satire — as in his previous novels — is the predictably manipulable venality and lustfulness of the modern metropolitan man, intellectual or otherwise."[13] Adam Shatz, writing for the London Review of Books, states that it "is the work of a nihilist not a hater – the jeu d’esprit of a man without convictions".[14]
Some critics also suggested the novel promoted misogynistic views. Erik Martiny's review in The London Magazine highlighted that "gender hierarchy is presented in the novel as the essential backbone to a healthy, stable society."[15] Heller McAlpin's review for the NPR concluded with the line, "I'm hoping that women, at least, won't take this insulting scenario lying down," while Lydia Kiesling contextualized the book's depiction of women by stating Submission contains an "Evo-Psych 101 correlation of women's worth with their sexual viability" prevalent in both Houellebecq's work and his personal comments.[16][11]
Publication
On 5 January 2015, French president François Hollande announced in an interview for France Inter radio that he "would read the book, because it's sparking a debate."[17]
The author appeared in a caricature on the front page of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015, the day when the offices of the newspaper were attacked by masked gunmen who killed eight Charlie Hebdo employees. The title on the cover was: "Les prédictions du mage Houellebecq : en 2015, je perds mes dents, en 2022, je fais ramadan." (English: "The predictions of the sorcerer Houellebecq: In 2015, I lose my teeth. In 2022, I observe Ramadan.")[18]
On the day of the publishing of the book and hours before the attack on Charlie Hebdo, Houellebecq said in an interview for France Inter radio:
There's a real disdain in this country for all the authorities. ... You can feel that this can't continue. Something has to change. I don't know what, but something.[19]
The Italian language translation (Sottomissione) by Vincenzo Vega was published on 15 January 2015 by Bompiani.
The German translation (Unterwerfung) by Norma Cassau and Bernd Wilczek was published on 16 January 2015 by DuMont Buchverlag.[20]Lorin Stein translated the book into English. The Spanish language translation (Sumisión) by Joan Riambau was published 29 April 2015 by Anagrama.
Several critics, including Bruno de Cessole of Valeurs actuelles and Jérôme Dupuis of L'Express, compared the novel to Jean Raspail's 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, a novel about the political impotence of Europe during a massive wave of immigration from India.[22][23] Grégoire Leménager of L'Obs downplayed the similarities to The Camp of the Saints, as Submission does not deal with ethnicity, and instead placed Houellebecq's novel within a trend of recent French novels about immigration and Islam, together with La Mémoire de Clara by Patrick Besson, Dawa by Julien Suaudeau and Les Événements by Jean Rolin, speculating that the concept of the "Great Replacement" ("Grand Remplacement"), as formulated by Renaud Camus, was becoming fashionable as a literary device.[24] The book has also been seen as inspired by Bat Ye'or's Eurabia thesis.[25][26]
Marine Le Pen commented in an interview with France Info radio that the novel is "a fiction that could one day become reality."[19]
Mark Lilla, in The New York Review of Books, stated similarly that "Europe in 2022 has to find another way to escape the present, and 'Islam' just happens to be the name of the next clone."[27]
A monologue stage performance with Edgar Selge as François toured Germany in early 2016 with dates in Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin. According to Die Zeit, interest in the story was piqued by the New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany.[29] A German film adaptation, based both on the novel and the stage performance, was produced by the television channel Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg as Unterwerfung. The film stars Selge who reprises his role from the stage version.[30] The film premiered on German public broadcaster ARD on 6 June 2018, followed by a roundtable,[31] which resulted in "a broad internet discussion," in calls for all German political talkshows to be suspended for one year,[32] and in an apology from ARD presenter Sandra Maischberger.[33]
Murray could not have imagined a better metaphor for a dying Europe than Houellebecq’s portrayal of France’s ‘general atmosphere of tacit and lazy acceptance’ of its Islamization.[34]
Editions and translations
Soumission, French, Flammarion, 7 January 2015
Sottomissione, Italian translation, Bompiani, 15 January 2015 (Translator: V. Vega)
Unterwerfung, German translation, Dumont Buchverlag, 16 January 2015 (Translators: Norma Cassau and Bernd Wilczek)
Behódolás, Hungarian translation, Magvető, 22 April 2015 (Translator: Ágnes Tótfalusi)
^Matthias Dell (6 June 2018). "From lust to the horror scenario". Die Zeit (in German). Retrieved 14 June 2018. Submission" premieres on Wednesday, June 6, at 8.15 pm and is then available in the media library. Sandra Maischberger discusses the film in her subsequent talk show with the title: " The Islam debate: Where does the tolerance end?
^"Kulturrat calls for a one-year break for talk shows". Die Zeit. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018. The aim of the German Cultural Council is to "stimulate cultural policy discussion at all political levels and to advocate freedom of the arts, publications and information."
^Ivan Strenski: Prospects for the Death of Europe: Islam, Christianity, the Future Identity of Europe. In: Terrorism and Political Violence. Vol 32, issue 3, 2020, p. 654-680, doi:10.1080/09546553.2020.1733341 (Review), PDF.
