This thesis assesses the relation between the novelistic work of French author Michel Houellebecq and the theoretical work of French Indologist and esoteric polemicist René Guénon. While this...Show moreThis thesis assesses the relation between the novelistic work of French author Michel Houellebecq and the theoretical work of French Indologist and esoteric polemicist René Guénon. While this relationship has been noticed before, it hasn’t been addressed in a more extensive study. This work questions how the concept of ‘tradition’, which is a key idea in Guénon’s theoretical work, can be interpreted in Houellebecq’s novels, and especially his 2015 novel Soumission. To adequately address this question, the first chapter sets out to explain and contextualize Guénon’s works Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (1921) and The Crisis of the Modern World (1927). It explains the most important concepts of Guénon’s work, particularly the semantics of ‘tradition’. The author stresses that ‘tradition’, however a supposedly a-historical notion, is embedded within Guénon’s understanding of History as a gradual disintegration of authentic spirituality. The second chapter investigates how the concept of modernity is represented in several of Houellebecq’s novels. The author uses secondary literature by Van Wesemael, Betty and Sweeney to argue how the representation of modernity throughout Houellebecq’s novels is polyphonic, both progressive and reactionary. Within Houellebecq’s critique of modernity, the third chapter explores how Houellebecq’s novel Soumission fictionally represents Guénon’s idea of tradition. It poses that the representation of traditionalism in Soumission, as an expression of the rejection of modernity that is present throughout Houellebecq’s oeuvre, could be seen as part of a general current of Guénonian influence in Houellebecq’s oeuvre. This influence however, as the thesis concludes, should always be regarded from within the limits of literary representation.Show less
This thesis investigates the U.S. Air Force's reaction to the Vietnam War, focusing on the period between 1975 and 1991. It explores how Air Force officers assessed the war during this time, and to...Show moreThis thesis investigates the U.S. Air Force's reaction to the Vietnam War, focusing on the period between 1975 and 1991. It explores how Air Force officers assessed the war during this time, and to what extent the experience of Vietnam led to concrete changes in the Air Force. The thesis finds that the Air Force's deeply ingrained institutional culture prescribed particular views about the use of airpower, and that this prevented them from conducting proper evaluations of the war. This adherence to their institutional culture was not a new development. Rather, it was a continuation of Air Force attitudes from the time between World War II and the Vietnam War.Show less
