The protagonists of Georges Perec's novel Les Choses (1965) are not named until chapter 3. Up until then they are referred to solely as ‘ils’. The effect – or purpose – of this is to emphasise that they have little identity other than as symptoms of an era. Indeed, in a reference to the student phase of their lives, which is coming to an end as the novel begins, we are told that ‘Ils avaient longtemps été parfaitement anonymes’ (35).

The moment at which the protagonists acquire names is also the point at which they obtain jobs, and the nature of these jobs is indicative of the larger issues raised by their story. Jérôme and Sylvie take up work as ‘psychosociologues’ (29), which means carrying out ‘études de motivation’ (30) – an activity that, we are told, is ‘en pleine expansion’ and in which they soon progress to the level of assignments called ‘analyse de contenu’ (33). Motivational analysis or research, exploring the public's attitudes to products at a subconscious or unconscious level, is the phenomenon that caused a stir when its aims and methods were exposed by Vance Packard in The Hidden Persuaders of 1957. Le Clézio was to denounce its ominous implications in Les Géants. In 1958, when Perec's characters take up the work, motivational research is still a relatively young profession, we are told, at a ‘stade presque artisanal’ of its development, and its rapid expansion, coupled with ‘la nouveauté des méthodes’, means there are openings for inexperienced people who can learn on the job. Hence Jérôme and Sylvie rapidly pick up the ‘techniques, à vrai dire moins difficiles que ce que l'on suppose généralement, des interviews ouvertes et fermées’ (31), along with the knack of spotting in their subject's responses, ‘sous les allusions timides, les chemins qu'il fallait explorer’ (32). They further acquire the necessary ‘bribes de sociologie, de psychologie, de statistiques’; the appropriate vocabulary and tricks of the trade; and the names of key researchers developing the theory and methods of social sciences and organisational psychology as applied to the commercial environment: Wright Mills, William Whyte, or Lazarsfeld, Cantril or Herbert Hyman, ‘dont ils n'avaient pas lu trois pages’ (32).