Happiness as an impossible horizon

on Andrei Platonov and Michel Houellebecq

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2024..92-99

Keywords:

Andrei Platonov, Michel Houellebecq, Dzhan (Soul), The Possibility of an Island, utopia, dystopia, happiness, eternal life

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the short story Dzhan by Andrei Platonov written in the early 20th century, and the novel The Possibility of an Island by Michel Houellebecq penned in the early 21st century. Genre-wise, both works navigate between utopia and dystopia. The text explores the potential for happiness in conditions of a primordial, pre-modern society (in Dzhan) and in the context of hypermodernity (The Possibility of an Island). The article questions: What happens to the perfect utopian machine and the pursuit of happiness today? Or, how does the absence of desire and imagination, the lack of a lasting yearning for future horizons, as an essential existential aspect of humanity, undermine even the inhuman itself?

Author Biography

  • Galina Georgieva, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

    Galina Georgieva, Assistant Professor, PhD, Institute of Literature, BAS. Part-time lecturer at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and South-West University Neofit Rilski. She is the author of the book Avant-garde and Social Realism. The Problem of Lyric Poetry in Russia in the 1917-1934 Period. Her interests are related to the avant-garde, socialism, utopias and dystopias, the history and theory of cinema. She has participated in a number of projects in these areas.

References

Georgieva, G. (2016). Vazmozhnost za Dzhan. Transformatsii na (ne)choveshkoto pri Platonov i Uelbek. Piron, akademichno elektronno izdanie za kultura i izkustva, (12). https://piron.culturecenter-su.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Galina-Georgieva_Vuzmojnost_za_Dzhan.pdf

Houellebecq, M. (2006). Vazmozhnost za ostrov (Galina Melamed, Translator). Fakel Ekspres.

Kiossev, A. (2014). Skandalat na utopiyata. Piron, (7).

Platonov, A. (1999). Proza. Pushkinskaya biblioteka.

Platonov, A. (2021). Chevengur. Izkopat (T. 2; Simeon Vladimirov, Translator). Iztok-Zapad.

Houellebecq, M. (2005). La possibilité d'une île. Éditions Fayard.

Houellebecq, M. (2006). The possibility of an island (Gavin Bowd, Translator). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Platonov, A. (1978). Collected works (Thomas P. Whitney, Carl R. Proffer, Alexey A. Kiselev, Marion Jordan and Friederike Snyder, Translators). Ardis Publishing.

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Published

2025-11-06

Issue

Vol. 10 (2024)

Section

I. Dystopia Traditions, Genre Dynamics, Directions of Transformation

License

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How to Cite

Happiness as an impossible horizon: on Andrei Platonov and Michel Houellebecq. (2025). Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 10, 92-99. https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2024..92-99