Sąsiad sąsiadowi wilkiem Motyw sąsiedztwa w prozie Michela Houellebecqa
A neighbour is a wolf to another neighbour. The motif of vicinity in Michel Houellebecq’s prose

Summary/Abstract: Otherness, alienation, the requirement to establish a neighbourly relationship with everything that is not mine – these are the main themes of Michel Houellebecq’s novel. The main character invented by the French writer is a nihilist who cannotrelate to anything, not even to himself, and every contact with otherness arouseshis fear, opposition and aggression. The unpleasant and unbearable proximity ofothers, however, allows him to define himself: in Submission he defines himself inopposition to the Muslim tradition, in Serotonin he despises the Dutch and his ownAsian fiancée, in Aneantir he fights as a carnivore over the ingredients in the householdfridge. His environs intensify his sense of loneliness, and observing othercultures, nations, traditions and habits leads to one bitter reflection – I don’t belonganywhere, therefore I am completely alone. What kind of neighbour can a total misanthropebe? And why did Houellebecq, in an age of openness, tolerance, praise of beauty and self-perfection, choose this particular kind of self-creation?

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