Queer Sexualities in French and Francophone Literature and Film. (French Literature)

Annotation. The steady development of queer theory over the last two decades has provided useful analytical tools and the will to dismiss the watchdog of heteronormativity. Modes of reading have evolved, as this volume of FLS amply attests. Following Bill Edmiston¿s introduction to the volume ¿ a concise and informative history of queer theory ¿ the fifteen articles reveal, not surprisingly, significant diversity. One deals with queerness in the context of medieval writing where allegorical and euphemistic expression were understood to be irreconcilable. Another treats translations in Early Modern France of an Ovidian fable that had an inconvenient lesbian dimension. Rousseau¿s fixation on his bottom (e.g., for spankings) points to a queer streak, while Gautier¿s Mademoiselle de Maupin enhances the theme of sexual misidentity with ornamental figures. The queerness of Sand¿s La Mare au diable emerges in the course of a contrasexual reading. A musicologist investigates the possibility of a lesbian esthetics of music in a work by Erik Satie, while a literary scholar finds evidence of Proust¿s ¿outing¿ in Jean Santeuil. Other articles address the sense of gender transformation wrought by sodomy, a revised view on the writing subject in Jean Genet¿s fiction, the queerness of heterosexuality in the works of Michel Houellebecq, and recurring motifs in recent fiction produced by ¿gay Paris.¿ Two of the articles treat activism and esthetics in film Introduction Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The -- Ed Madden Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The -- Ed Madden -- Elizabeth Stephens Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The -- Ed Madden -- Elizabeth Stephens -- Hélène Fleckinger Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The -- Ed Madden -- Elizabeth Stephens -- Hélène Fleckinger -- Philippe C. Dubois Introduction -- Michael A. Johnson -- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard -- A -- Pierre Zoberman -- Angela N. Hunter -- Guri Ellen Barstad -- James F. Hamilton -- Samuel N. Dorf -- Nathan Guss -- The -- Ed Madden -- Elizabeth Stephens -- Hélène Fleckinger -- Philippe C. Dubois -- Douglas Morrey Introduction-- Michael A. Johnson-- Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard-- A-- Pierre Zoberman-- Angela N. Hunter-- Guri Ellen Barstad-- James F. Hamilton-- Samuel N. Dorf-- Nathan Guss-- The-- Ed Madden-- Elizabeth Stephens-- Hélène Fleckinger-- Philippe C. Dubois-- Douglas Morrey-- Lawrence R. Schehr. Introduction -- Sodomy, Allegory, And The Subject Of Pleasure / Michael A. Johnson -- Divergence Et Queeriosités : Ovide Moralisé Ou Les Mutations D' Iphis En Garçon (xiie-xviiie) / Lise Leibacher-ouvrard -- A Modest Proposal For Queering The Past : A Queer Princess With A Space Of Her Own / Pierre Zoberman -- Rousseau's Queer Bottom : Sexual Difference In The Confessions / Angela N. Hunter -- Mademoiselle De Maupin : Fluctuations Identitaires Et Sexuelles / Guri Ellen Barstad -- Gender Convergence In Sand's La Mare Au Diable, A Contrasexuel Reading / James F. Hamilton -- Étrange N'est-ce Pas ? The Princess Edmond De Polignac, Erik Satie's Socrate, And A Lesbian Aesthetic Of Music? / Samuel N. Dorf -- Outing Proust / Nathan Guss -- The Anus Of Tiresias : Sodomy, Alchemy, Metamorphosis / Ed Madden -- Queer Writing : Homoeroticism In Jean Genet's Fiction / Elizabeth Stephens -- Nous Sommes Un Fléau Social : Cinéma, Vidéo Et Luttes Homosexuelles / Hélène Fleckinger -- Révélations Intimes : Vers Une Cartographie Queer Du Sud-ouest / Philippe C. Dubois -- Stop The World, Or What's Queer About Michel Houellebecq ? / Douglas Morrey -- Recto/verso : Mapping The Contemporary Gay Novel / Lawrence R. Schehr. Edited By James Day. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Texts In English Or French. Drawn from papers presented at the March/April 2006 French Literature Conference in Columbia, South Carolina, these 14 papers examine queer theory and its application to works of expression, whether on film, in print or in performance. Topics include the binary opposition of medieval exegetical discourse, the genealogy the fable of Iphis and Ianthe and its reflection of the development of heteronormality, the role of comfort and discomfort in non-conformity, Rousseau's take on sexual difference, Gautier's questions on sexual identity, Sand's questions on sexual convergence, odes on Socrates made to order for a lesbian audience, the coexistence of male and female in Proust, the symbolic sexual identity of Tiresias, the homoeroticism of Genet, the groundbreaking homosexual French films of the 1970s, the new spaces of Barthes and Ozon in the French southwest, Houellebecq's disillusion, and the various fates of the modern gay novel in France. Annotation 2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)