Conceptualizing the Common European Home: a French Vision

Conceptualizing the Common European Home:
a French Vision


Simonov Yu.P.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, kafedra.mlik@yandex.ru


elibrary_id: 690077 |

Korolev A.A.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, king2204@yandex.ru



DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2021.01.02

For citation:

Simonov Yu.P., Korolev A.A. Conceptualizing the Common European Home: a French Vision. – Polis. Political Studies. 2021. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2021.01.02



Abstract

The “Common European Home” (maison commune européenne) is a political project and civil society strategy which prioritises the cultural similarities of the peoples of Europe in relation to integration amongst nation-states. The purpose of this study is to trace the specifics regarding the conceptualization of this principle in its form of political mythology (political metaphor) as fed by media and artistic discourses. The study conducts an innovative analysis of the political metaphor “European Home” based on material by the famous French writer Michel Houellebecq. The deconstruction of Houellebecq’s metaphor helps to trace the transgression of the political myth of the “European Home” as 1) “Greater Europe from Gibraltar to the Urals” and 2) “a union identical to the EU”. The image created by Houellebecq himself reflects new perspectives on “new values” as based on Europeans’ experiences thereof, identifying the problem of rejecting the “new” (pan-European) identity and refusing to reduce culture to its political façades. The close relationship between the artistic optics of Houellebecq’s novels and the techniques of modern imagology is revealed; the deep significance of literary images in the creation of the image of the country regarding its political consciousness is explained and traced. The results of the study provide a new perspective on the discussions that are underway in France in connection with the “political dimension” of Houellebecq’s work, and also clarify the importance of literature as an empirical and theoretical source of political theory. 

Keywords
European home, new values, politics and culture, paradoxes of European unity, anthropological prism, imagological studies of political processes, creativity of M. Houellebecq.


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