Ataraxia in Georges Perec and Michel Houellebecq

The dialogical polyphonic logic of literary writing is anchored and harmonized around a constant in Georges Perec's and Michel Houellebecq's novels Les choses une histoire des années soixante and La carte et le territoire respectively in which ataraxia appears as a major given. In these authors ataraxia refers to the tranquility of soul and spirit that the characters have sought in their pursuit of happiness. The fact remains however that dialogical logic highlights the artistic expression of a certain disposition on the part of both the authors and the reader-spectator. When they seek to enlighten opinion through the prism of ataraxia in the novels studied the authors through the referentiality to the real world inherent in this practice help to insert a polyphonic intertextuality into the literary process.