UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Dirty Work: Labor, Dissatisfaction and Everyday Life in Contemporary French Literature and Culture (1975-present) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9586x4bj Author Fronsman-Cecil, Dorthea Margery Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Dirty Work: Labor, Dissatisfaction and Everyday Life in Contemporary French Literature and Culture (1975-present) A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies by Dorthea Margery Fronsman-Cecil 2018 © Copyright by Dorthea Margery Fronsman-Cecil 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Dirty Work: Labor, Dissatisfaction and Everyday Life in Contemporary French Literature and Culture (1975-present) by Dorthea Margery Fronsman-Cecil Doctor of Philosophy in French and Francophone Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Lia N. Brozgal, Chair “Dirty Work: Labor, Dissatisfaction and Everyday Life in Contemporary French Literature and Culture (1975-present),” is an analysis of the representation of everyday activities – namely, of work, leisure, and consumerism – in contemporary French novels and other cultural productions. This dissertation examines how these contemporary texts use narrative, generic, and stylistic experiments to represent cynicism and dissatisfaction with everyday life as the consequences of neoliberal capitalist ideology and instrumentalist thinking, which define “work” as labor that produces commodities and profit and “leisure” as consumerism. In this way, these cultural productions critique capitalist instrumentalism for reducing human subjectivity to embodied economic struggle. I demonstrate how these texts portray dissatisfied laborers (and unemployed people) exhausted by unfulfilling work and financial precariousness, who implicate these conditions for thwarting their pursuit of more meaningful activities – artistic creation, meaningful work, love, community-building, political action – and existential freedom. By ii problematizing the effects of capitalist ideology, economic inequality, and received ideas about work and art, the texts in the corpus portray creative work, political consciousness, and social engagement as essential to contemporary individuals’ sense of subjective fulfillment and of belonging within French society. The corpus of this dissertation includes a wide range of authors, from best-selling novelists to “cult” underground figures: works by controversial but popular authors Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Beigbeder; newer literary voices Nathalie Kuperman, Gauz, and Julien Campredon; and punk and underground writers Virginie Despentes, Kriss Vilà, and Jean-Louis Costes. In addition to fiction, the corpus includes songs, zines, and journalism. I read these narratives of everyday life – literary fiction, genre fiction, subcultural fiction, and other texts – through a critical lens informed by continental and Marxist philosophy, literary theory, and the social sciences. With this critical framework, I illustrate that the texts in the corpus portray creative work, social engagement, and political consciousness as essential to contemporary individuals’ sense of subjective fulfillment and of belonging within French society. Finally, by recuperating the texts of subcultures for scholarly study, this dissertation also sheds timely critical light on texts overlooked by scholars for up to 43 years, illuminating their aesthetic and thematic correspondences with better-known works. iii The dissertation of Dorthea Margery Fronsman-Cecil is approved. Malina Stefanovska Brian Kim Stefans Lia N. Brozgal, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Dissertation Abstract ii Committee Page iv Table of Contents v Acknowledgments vi Vita/Biographical Sketch viii Introduction 1 “L’écriture ne soulage guère:” Labor, “creatives,” action, and (art)work(s) in the novels of Michel Houellebecq and Frédéric Beigbeder 30 “La prise de la Bastille libérerait des milliers de prisonniers de consommation:” Creativity and globalization at work and play in Nathalie Kuperman’s Nous étions des êtres vivants and Gauz’s Debout-payé 93 “Je suis punk, c’est fantastique:” work, leisure, and “punkitude” in French punk literature and culture 150 Perverse picaresque and chômage grotesque: Jean-Louis Costes’ Guerriers Amoureux and Julien Campredon’s Brûlons tous ces punks pour l’amour des elfes 209 Bibliography 265 v Acknowledgments I wish to extend personal thanks to the scholars and mentors who have encouraged me and offered me feedback on drafts of this work. Thank you to my mentor during my bachelor’s degree, Marie-Luce Parker, who supervised my honors research in French, and who first gave me opportunities for scholarships and study abroad in French. By the same token, thanks to Gabi Lunte, who supervised my undergraduate honors thesis in German and encouraged me to write about and study pop culture. I want to thank Van Kelly at the University of Kansas for being the first mentor to affirm that I wasn’t wasting my time writing about Michel Houellebecq, and for his unflagging support of my research. Many large thanks to my dissertation director Lia Brozgal for countenancing my many moments of not feeling like I was where I needed to be, and for giving such outstanding professional advice, writing feedback, and mentorship. Additional thanks to my committee member and mentor Malina Stefanovska, who also gave tremendous writing feedback and made sure I had chances to write. I would also like to thank my committee member Brian Kim Stefans for his interest in my work, which gave me confidence when I needed it. The chair of my department, Dominic Thomas, also supported my work with excellent advice and fellowship funding, for which I am very grateful. Furthermore, I’d like to extend thanks to some other scholars whose work discusses literary representation of shifting values in late capitalism, especially Vincent Message, who was kind enough to meet with me in Paris. My appreciation for Kenneth Reinhardt accepting me to UCLA’s critical theory seminar should also be mentioned, because it gave me a chance to immerse myself more in Marxist theory, to write about Houellebecq and Costes, and to deeply plumb and consider the relationship between art, politics, and philosophy. I’d like to thank the organizers and other participants at the “Thinking Work” London Postgraduate French Studies conference in 2016 and the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France vi conference in 2017, who provided such excellent feedback to my presentations, which were my first drafts of several of these chapters. I want to offer special thanks to John Marks and especially to Jeremy Lane, who both wrote about Nathalie Kuperman before me, and who both gave me helpful comments on my intervention. Jeremy’s collegial personal interaction with me was a great help for giving me an idea of how to refine my work. Thanks also to Sarah Waters for discussing sociological considerations about studying French writing on work with me. Un grand merci to Solveig Serre and Luc Robène for publishing my work on Vilà and Despentes, and to the whole PIND team. Thank you, as well, to Kriss Vilà, Jean-Louis Costes, and Julien Campredon for their hospitality, for their time, and for granting me interviews. Personal thanks: to my husband, Anthony, for providing me with intellectual companionship and a sounding board for my ideas as well as a wonderful romance. Thank you to my mom, Sally, my sister Cassie, and to my entire family, for instilling the loves of books, justice, and individuality in me. Thanks to my friends for putting up with me constantly talking about my research. Even though cats can’t read, I want to thank M-Cat (1997-2015 RIP) and Snowshoe for being my support animals. Getting through a Ph.D, with multiple chronic health conditions has been challenging, but having a great medical team, excellent colleagues and mentors throughout the world, wonderful family and friends, and good cats in my life has helped. Finally, thanks to the musicians, the writers, the journalists, the zinesters, the artists, the designers, the filmmakers, the weirdos, and the friends from all over the punk scenes of the world, for saving my life more than once and for giving me so much to write about. Up the punx! 1-2-3-4…! vii Vita/Biographical Sketch EDUCATION University of California Los Angeles – Los Angeles, CA Ph.D. candidate in French and Francophone Studies with certificate in Experimental Critical Theory. Advanced to candidacy in September 2016. Projected graduation date: December 14th, 2018. GPA: 3.94 Dissertation: “Dirty Work: Labor, Dissatisfaction and Everyday Life in Contemporary French Literature and Culture (1975-present).” Committee: Lia N. Brozgal (chair), Malina Stefanovska, Brian Kim Stefans. University of Kansas – Lawrence, KS Master of Arts, French (honors). December 2010. GPA: 3.96 Washburn University – Topeka, KS Bachelor of Arts, French (honors), German (honors). May 2007. GPA: 3.74 (magna cum laude) ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT Los Angeles Valley College (August 2018-present) French Adjunct Professor UCLA Department of French and Francophone Studies (September 2013 – June 2018) Graduate Teaching Assistant University of Kansas Department of French and Italian (August 2008 – May 2011) Graduate Teaching