Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ... more Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ecologist fiction. It not only adopts a generally positive view towards nature, figured broadly and perhaps chiefly aesthetically, but also allies itself with science, particularly ecology and the Gaia hypothesis, in contrast with the generally hostile attitude of sexuality theory in France towards natural science. At the same time it expresses a deep suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry and to a degree of technology, both of which are also highlighted within the work. The novel retains certain ideological problems of nature discourse concerning gender, as distinct from sexuality. It shows a structural misogyny that marks it definitively as a masculinist and gay novel instead of a queer one, even as it successfully proposes a sexual minority vision of ecology.
The visual language of 120 Battements par minute imposes a disciplined approach to colour: specif... more The visual language of 120 Battements par minute imposes a disciplined approach to colour: specifically, the Tricolore. Blue, white, and red appear in a colour 'chord' that indexes the French flag. This chromatic iconography enables the film to assimilate minoritarian discourses into a French Republican narrative, staking a claim on the French nation on behalf of Act Up-Paris. By placing the national colours strategically within the mise-en-scène, Campillo's film uses the Tricolore to help the audience integrate the characters and plot out of their organizational, medico-sexual, and ethnic specificities and back into the prevailing and exclusionary Republican ideology. Although 120 BPM aligns itself strongly and explicitly with various sexual minority and PWA communities, I argue that its cultural and commercial contexts require it to sidestep possible charges of communautarisme. Faced with the risk of telling the story of an exotic, possibly foreign-inspired movement, the film tells its story through a minoritarian plot and dialogue, while showing it to be patriotically French, through colour. Thus does 120 BPM command authority as a National film, while quietly balancing queer visibility with a claim to integration. PRÉCIS Le langage visuel de 120 BPM impose une approche disciplinée envers la couleur, surtout le drapeau français. Bleu, blanc, rouge font un accord chromatique, ce qui fait inévitablement référence au drapeau tricolore. Une iconographie de couleurs, sans référence aux couleurs humaines, permet au film de s'assimiler, lui et ses discours, à l'idée de la France, au discours républicain français. Ce moyen de signification à travers la mise-en-scène permet au film aussi de revendiquer une part dans la nation en faveur de Act Up-Paris. En fait le film se sert du tricolore pour encourager un public majoritairement hétéro à accepter son contenu au niveau idéologique, opération compliquée, faute de spécificités identitaires, organisationnelles et médico-sexuelles chez les activistes figurés. Bien que 120 BPM s'aligne carrément au côté des sexualités minoritaires et des séropositifs, nous proposons que ses contextes historiques et commerciaux exigent au film d'éviter toute accusation possible de communautarisme. Le film raconte des dialogues minoritaires, une intrigue minoritaire, alors qu'il arbore un récit affectif patriotique: question de réaliser un équilibre délicat entre la visibilité et l'intégration historique.
Artaud and Genet differ from the earlier writers, Flaubert and Eekhoud, by making sexual revelati... more Artaud and Genet differ from the earlier writers, Flaubert and Eekhoud, by making sexual revelation and discovery violent, thus reflecting contemporary cultural trends. Hartford postulates that they differ from each other in both their attitude towards Christianity and their use of the martyr figure. Both construct a network of references between their fictitious characters and orthodox religious figures. Artaud uses this metaphorical system as a counterexample for Christian culture as it is actually practiced, in order to explore the meaning of faith. In contrast, Genet parodies Christian culture and norms out of self-interest. The chapter concludes with a critical evaluation of Genet’s work and of his position in literary history, noting that Artaud, who is more innovative, has been relatively ignored for political reasons.
Hartford further develops the contrast between the two broad approaches to queering the martyr, t... more Hartford further develops the contrast between the two broad approaches to queering the martyr, the philosophical and the political, through detailed analysis of more recent novels by Michel Tournier and Guy Hocquenghem. Tournier uses a mix of gay and queer martyrs, with effects distributed according to type, while Hocquenghem’s are gay male only. Each writer’s work reveals a paradox. Tournier’s martyrs are innovative yet ethically problematic, while Hocquenghem’s gay martyrs are expressly political in aim but conform to a known pattern, and so are less radical. Hartford highlights the influence of traditional iconography on each writer, with particular attention to complex rhetorical and textual effects.
For this book, the religious authority of reference is the Roman Catholic Church, whose doctrines... more For this book, the religious authority of reference is the Roman Catholic Church, whose doctrines and practices constitute the general religious background for France and Belgium. There are of course exceptions. Readers may be familiar with, for example, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim minorities in both countries, along with their cultural influences. With reference to the literary works featured hereafter, one principal author, Artaud, was of partly Greek background, and his work seems to have drawn from some familiarity with Eastern Orthodoxy in certain ways. Georges Eekhoud, himself of Catholic background, has been said to have made an oblique attack on Protestantism in at least one of his works. I will return to these interactions in detail later. For the time being, however, terms such as "Christianity" and "the Christian context" as used here will normally be taken to indicate Roman Catholicism, as that Church is the most influential in France and especially in Belgium. One can be aware of a distinction, frequently blurred, between religion as it is practised within official Church activities, and religion as it is represented and interpreted in the broader culture. One can speak of continua of religious experiences and religious thought across the culture and population. Considerations of religious questions by lay writers could be considered part of religious culture. They might not and arguably should not be expected to conform to official Church doctrine, but there will be a relationship between the two. These facts become particularly important in the modern period. Even highly critical writers who were agnostics or atheists contribute to the
The author analytically presents the work of the Belgian Georges Eekhoud, a prolific and popular ... more The author analytically presents the work of the Belgian Georges Eekhoud, a prolific and popular novelist in his day, as the second writer to use the queer martyr as a narrative device. He explores Eekhoud’s use of language, symbolism, and religious reference to promote the agenda of male homosexuality. This queer propaganda, heavily dependent on Catholic iconography and on lay understandings of the martyr, is shown to be based on the combination of metaphors from the language of religious wrath with classic pornography. The characters’ suffering for their sexuality is approximated to saintly suffering for one’s faith. The chapter concludes by questioning the ethical consequences of later writers’ adaptation of Eekhoud’s model of the queer martyr, in contrast with Flaubert’s, focusing particularly on Jean Genet.
This book examines the work of several modern French and Belgian writers of fiction who blend que... more This book examines the work of several modern French and Belgian writers of fiction who blend queer sexuality with Christian martyrdom, or analogies to it, to produce a rhetorical device. Their approaches vary widely. At one extreme, the queer martyr figure appears in experimental texts as a means of broaching ethical questions. At the other, the character becomes a political device to promote specifically gay male identity. In tracing the cultural history, Hartford reveals that this subversive usage of Catholic cultural norms is limited to men, with women writers in French avoiding Catholic motifs almost entirely. He argues convincingly that writers using the gay icon to promote their own homosexuality were less innovative, despite their cultural impact, than those who used Christian martyr themes philosophically.
“La Legende de saint Julien l’Hospitalier,” by Gustave Flaubert, is the first presentation of a q... more “La Legende de saint Julien l’Hospitalier,” by Gustave Flaubert, is the first presentation of a queer martyr in prose fiction. The author explores Flaubert’s innovative use of the Julien figure as a foil for philosophical conflict, represented through the unlikely pairing of Christian martyrdom and queer sexuality. The true purpose to the metaphor is ethical enquiry. Martyrdom and sexual queerness are both subordinate narrative devices, and serve their own ends incidentally at most. Flaubert’s animosity towards organized, official Catholicism and his growing awareness of and respect for the ethical value of faith are traced through a scholarly examination of his works, including Madame Bovary and the writer’s extensive correspondence.
Abstract This article proposes François Ozon’s Ricky (2009) as a case study for a cognitive-analy... more Abstract This article proposes François Ozon’s Ricky (2009) as a case study for a cognitive-analytical discussion of film genre, with a focus on how horror cinema is received in France. By contrasting Ricky’s film text with its reception history, this discussion brings to light the potential consequences of being a genre film in a culture that resists the discourse of this genre. The argument is predicated on a definition of genre as categorisation according to the affect it elicits in the audience (after Torben Grodal’s work). While identifying characteristics that align the film with quality horror, this article also uncovers Ricky’s treatment of strong cultural taboos, such as cannibalism, alongside the enduring critical taboo of being a horror film, as opposed to a fantasy film, in the French context and within an auteur profile. As a tale about a winged baby, by representing vacillation between the symbolic (angel wings) and the libidinal (chicken wings) as they sprout from the titular character’s body, Ricky shows us a possibly borderline mother and family; but it also reveals an abject truth within cultural incoherencies.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Journal of The Midwest Modern Language Association, 2004
"During the nineteenth century, literature shared with the medical and psychological science... more "During the nineteenth century, literature shared with the medical and psychological sciences a strategy of examining the most extreme manifestations of human desire. In this groundbreaking study, Lisa Downing rescues necrophilia from the margins of sexuality, relocating it as a symptom and pervasive fantasy of modern subjectivity. Drawing case material from the nineteenth-century French canon, the author brings works by Baudelaire and Rachilde into dialogue with foundational European texts of sexology and psychoanalysis. She reads against the grain of traditional Freudian theories of sexuality, of conventions of nineteenth-century literary scholarship and of feminist critiques of the 'masculine' morbid aesthetic in order to bring to light a model of desire whose problematic nature afflicts existing discourses about sexuality and gender in nineteenth-century France and beyond. Reviews: * 'Downing is working outside the scope of any simple discourse of pathology, and perhaps outside the queer undoing of pathology as such. ...this is an impressive first book, striking without being facile, theoretically complex without being unruly, and attentive to literary qualities in the chosen texts while sustaining its thematic argument.' - Peter Cryle, Modern Language Review 100.2, 2005, 505-6 * 'This is a successful, richly structured, and thought-provoking exploration of 'the cultural fantasy of necrophilia'.' - Carol Rifelj, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 33, n. 1 and 2, Fall-Winter 2004-2005"
Abstract This article proposes Noordzee, Texas, a romantic coming-of-age drama, as an implicitly ... more Abstract This article proposes Noordzee, Texas, a romantic coming-of-age drama, as an implicitly queer film. Noordzee portrays boys falling in love without engaging in gay identity politics, while also queering a working-class and Belgian context through a combination of aesthetic techniques, including language choice. Its queerness lies in its blend of subverting and ignoring various identity discourses — national, formal and sexual. Its production history illustrates the added difficulty of making a queer film in the complex industry environment that is Belgium. First, the article examines Noordzee in its visual and cultural contexts, explaining its mise-en-scène as being recognizably Belgian but also subverting aspects of Belgianness. The film’s approach to the nation mirrors its depiction of homosexuality independent of identity labels, both strategies drawing on innovations in iconography, colour and prettiness. Next, the article discusses the film’s production history against the background of the recent Belgian film industry, with the aim of contextualizing fully the claim that making an implicitly queer film is particularly difficult in an industrial milieu where so many social categories, including language, nationality and sexuality, influence the funding process.
and welcomes scholarly submissions from all disciplines. Submission requirements: Submissions sho... more and welcomes scholarly submissions from all disciplines. Submission requirements: Submissions should be less than forty pages and sent in electronic form, on a Compact Disc or via email, in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with two-inch side margins. All maps, charts, and graphs must be camera ready. Each article should be accompanied by an Abstract with keywords and have an Introduction. Documentation format should follow a style appropriate to the discipline: MLA for humanities and APA for social and behavioral sciences. Please include a removable cover page giving the institutional affiliations, positions, and highest degrees earned of all authors, as well as a return address and the article title; the article itself must carry only the title. Papers will be read by a minimum of two reviewers before a publication decision is made. Reviewers' comments and suggestions for revisions will be relayed to the author in a timely manner.
Revue critique de fixxion française contemporaine, Jun 15, 2016
Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ... more Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ecologist fiction. It not only adopts a generally positive view towards nature, figured broadly and perhaps chiefly aesthetically, but also allies itself with science, particularly ecology and the Gaia hypothesis, in contrast with the generally hostile attitude of sexuality theory in France towards natural science. At the same time it expresses a deep suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry and to a degree of technology, both of which are also highlighted within the work. The novel retains certain ideological problems of nature discourse concerning gender, as distinct from sexuality. It shows a structural misogyny that marks it definitively as a masculinist and gay novel instead of a queer one, even as it successfully proposes a sexual minority vision of ecology.
Sexuality, Iconography, and Fiction in French, 2018
The conclusion reiterates the goal of this book in pursuing the history of queer martyrdom throug... more The conclusion reiterates the goal of this book in pursuing the history of queer martyrdom through a contemporary understanding of the word queer. Dr. Hartford reveals the following conclusions. (a) Two types of martyr figures developed to serve discrete rhetorical purposes. (b) The intended aim of the martyr’s exemplarity is key to its sociocultural influence. (c) The predominance of male vs. female queer martyr figures, and the absence of female writers treating queer martyrs, is extremely important and reflects deep ecclesiastical misogyny. (d) On account of cultural differences, Anglophone scholars can have difficulty in translating and interpreting critical religious discourse in French, including the writings of Foucault as well as queer martyrs. Lastly, the author speculates on possible future directions for queer martyr studies.
This thesis examines the appearance, development and use of queer martyrs as they appear in Frenc... more This thesis examines the appearance, development and use of queer martyrs as they appear in French literature, mainly fiction, during the indicated period. It charts these in relation to two distinct manners of representation used for this leitmotiv. The first, exemplified in Flaubert, approaches it as a vehicle for reconciling divergent, and potentially conflicting philosophies. With the second, observable first in the work of the Belgian Naturalist Georges Eekhoud, the queer martyr becomes a means of asserting a homosexual identity, with chiefly political and pornographic applications.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ... more Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ecologist fiction. It not only adopts a generally positive view towards nature, figured broadly and perhaps chiefly aesthetically, but also allies itself with science, particularly ecology and the Gaia hypothesis, in contrast with the generally hostile attitude of sexuality theory in France towards natural science. At the same time it expresses a deep suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry and to a degree of technology, both of which are also highlighted within the work. The novel retains certain ideological problems of nature discourse concerning gender, as distinct from sexuality. It shows a structural misogyny that marks it definitively as a masculinist and gay novel instead of a queer one, even as it successfully proposes a sexual minority vision of ecology.
The visual language of 120 Battements par minute imposes a disciplined approach to colour: specif... more The visual language of 120 Battements par minute imposes a disciplined approach to colour: specifically, the Tricolore. Blue, white, and red appear in a colour 'chord' that indexes the French flag. This chromatic iconography enables the film to assimilate minoritarian discourses into a French Republican narrative, staking a claim on the French nation on behalf of Act Up-Paris. By placing the national colours strategically within the mise-en-scène, Campillo's film uses the Tricolore to help the audience integrate the characters and plot out of their organizational, medico-sexual, and ethnic specificities and back into the prevailing and exclusionary Republican ideology. Although 120 BPM aligns itself strongly and explicitly with various sexual minority and PWA communities, I argue that its cultural and commercial contexts require it to sidestep possible charges of communautarisme. Faced with the risk of telling the story of an exotic, possibly foreign-inspired movement, the film tells its story through a minoritarian plot and dialogue, while showing it to be patriotically French, through colour. Thus does 120 BPM command authority as a National film, while quietly balancing queer visibility with a claim to integration. PRÉCIS Le langage visuel de 120 BPM impose une approche disciplinée envers la couleur, surtout le drapeau français. Bleu, blanc, rouge font un accord chromatique, ce qui fait inévitablement référence au drapeau tricolore. Une iconographie de couleurs, sans référence aux couleurs humaines, permet au film de s'assimiler, lui et ses discours, à l'idée de la France, au discours républicain français. Ce moyen de signification à travers la mise-en-scène permet au film aussi de revendiquer une part dans la nation en faveur de Act Up-Paris. En fait le film se sert du tricolore pour encourager un public majoritairement hétéro à accepter son contenu au niveau idéologique, opération compliquée, faute de spécificités identitaires, organisationnelles et médico-sexuelles chez les activistes figurés. Bien que 120 BPM s'aligne carrément au côté des sexualités minoritaires et des séropositifs, nous proposons que ses contextes historiques et commerciaux exigent au film d'éviter toute accusation possible de communautarisme. Le film raconte des dialogues minoritaires, une intrigue minoritaire, alors qu'il arbore un récit affectif patriotique: question de réaliser un équilibre délicat entre la visibilité et l'intégration historique.
Artaud and Genet differ from the earlier writers, Flaubert and Eekhoud, by making sexual revelati... more Artaud and Genet differ from the earlier writers, Flaubert and Eekhoud, by making sexual revelation and discovery violent, thus reflecting contemporary cultural trends. Hartford postulates that they differ from each other in both their attitude towards Christianity and their use of the martyr figure. Both construct a network of references between their fictitious characters and orthodox religious figures. Artaud uses this metaphorical system as a counterexample for Christian culture as it is actually practiced, in order to explore the meaning of faith. In contrast, Genet parodies Christian culture and norms out of self-interest. The chapter concludes with a critical evaluation of Genet’s work and of his position in literary history, noting that Artaud, who is more innovative, has been relatively ignored for political reasons.
Hartford further develops the contrast between the two broad approaches to queering the martyr, t... more Hartford further develops the contrast between the two broad approaches to queering the martyr, the philosophical and the political, through detailed analysis of more recent novels by Michel Tournier and Guy Hocquenghem. Tournier uses a mix of gay and queer martyrs, with effects distributed according to type, while Hocquenghem’s are gay male only. Each writer’s work reveals a paradox. Tournier’s martyrs are innovative yet ethically problematic, while Hocquenghem’s gay martyrs are expressly political in aim but conform to a known pattern, and so are less radical. Hartford highlights the influence of traditional iconography on each writer, with particular attention to complex rhetorical and textual effects.
For this book, the religious authority of reference is the Roman Catholic Church, whose doctrines... more For this book, the religious authority of reference is the Roman Catholic Church, whose doctrines and practices constitute the general religious background for France and Belgium. There are of course exceptions. Readers may be familiar with, for example, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim minorities in both countries, along with their cultural influences. With reference to the literary works featured hereafter, one principal author, Artaud, was of partly Greek background, and his work seems to have drawn from some familiarity with Eastern Orthodoxy in certain ways. Georges Eekhoud, himself of Catholic background, has been said to have made an oblique attack on Protestantism in at least one of his works. I will return to these interactions in detail later. For the time being, however, terms such as "Christianity" and "the Christian context" as used here will normally be taken to indicate Roman Catholicism, as that Church is the most influential in France and especially in Belgium. One can be aware of a distinction, frequently blurred, between religion as it is practised within official Church activities, and religion as it is represented and interpreted in the broader culture. One can speak of continua of religious experiences and religious thought across the culture and population. Considerations of religious questions by lay writers could be considered part of religious culture. They might not and arguably should not be expected to conform to official Church doctrine, but there will be a relationship between the two. These facts become particularly important in the modern period. Even highly critical writers who were agnostics or atheists contribute to the
The author analytically presents the work of the Belgian Georges Eekhoud, a prolific and popular ... more The author analytically presents the work of the Belgian Georges Eekhoud, a prolific and popular novelist in his day, as the second writer to use the queer martyr as a narrative device. He explores Eekhoud’s use of language, symbolism, and religious reference to promote the agenda of male homosexuality. This queer propaganda, heavily dependent on Catholic iconography and on lay understandings of the martyr, is shown to be based on the combination of metaphors from the language of religious wrath with classic pornography. The characters’ suffering for their sexuality is approximated to saintly suffering for one’s faith. The chapter concludes by questioning the ethical consequences of later writers’ adaptation of Eekhoud’s model of the queer martyr, in contrast with Flaubert’s, focusing particularly on Jean Genet.
This book examines the work of several modern French and Belgian writers of fiction who blend que... more This book examines the work of several modern French and Belgian writers of fiction who blend queer sexuality with Christian martyrdom, or analogies to it, to produce a rhetorical device. Their approaches vary widely. At one extreme, the queer martyr figure appears in experimental texts as a means of broaching ethical questions. At the other, the character becomes a political device to promote specifically gay male identity. In tracing the cultural history, Hartford reveals that this subversive usage of Catholic cultural norms is limited to men, with women writers in French avoiding Catholic motifs almost entirely. He argues convincingly that writers using the gay icon to promote their own homosexuality were less innovative, despite their cultural impact, than those who used Christian martyr themes philosophically.
“La Legende de saint Julien l’Hospitalier,” by Gustave Flaubert, is the first presentation of a q... more “La Legende de saint Julien l’Hospitalier,” by Gustave Flaubert, is the first presentation of a queer martyr in prose fiction. The author explores Flaubert’s innovative use of the Julien figure as a foil for philosophical conflict, represented through the unlikely pairing of Christian martyrdom and queer sexuality. The true purpose to the metaphor is ethical enquiry. Martyrdom and sexual queerness are both subordinate narrative devices, and serve their own ends incidentally at most. Flaubert’s animosity towards organized, official Catholicism and his growing awareness of and respect for the ethical value of faith are traced through a scholarly examination of his works, including Madame Bovary and the writer’s extensive correspondence.
Abstract This article proposes François Ozon’s Ricky (2009) as a case study for a cognitive-analy... more Abstract This article proposes François Ozon’s Ricky (2009) as a case study for a cognitive-analytical discussion of film genre, with a focus on how horror cinema is received in France. By contrasting Ricky’s film text with its reception history, this discussion brings to light the potential consequences of being a genre film in a culture that resists the discourse of this genre. The argument is predicated on a definition of genre as categorisation according to the affect it elicits in the audience (after Torben Grodal’s work). While identifying characteristics that align the film with quality horror, this article also uncovers Ricky’s treatment of strong cultural taboos, such as cannibalism, alongside the enduring critical taboo of being a horror film, as opposed to a fantasy film, in the French context and within an auteur profile. As a tale about a winged baby, by representing vacillation between the symbolic (angel wings) and the libidinal (chicken wings) as they sprout from the titular character’s body, Ricky shows us a possibly borderline mother and family; but it also reveals an abject truth within cultural incoherencies.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Journal of The Midwest Modern Language Association, 2004
"During the nineteenth century, literature shared with the medical and psychological science... more "During the nineteenth century, literature shared with the medical and psychological sciences a strategy of examining the most extreme manifestations of human desire. In this groundbreaking study, Lisa Downing rescues necrophilia from the margins of sexuality, relocating it as a symptom and pervasive fantasy of modern subjectivity. Drawing case material from the nineteenth-century French canon, the author brings works by Baudelaire and Rachilde into dialogue with foundational European texts of sexology and psychoanalysis. She reads against the grain of traditional Freudian theories of sexuality, of conventions of nineteenth-century literary scholarship and of feminist critiques of the 'masculine' morbid aesthetic in order to bring to light a model of desire whose problematic nature afflicts existing discourses about sexuality and gender in nineteenth-century France and beyond. Reviews: * 'Downing is working outside the scope of any simple discourse of pathology, and perhaps outside the queer undoing of pathology as such. ...this is an impressive first book, striking without being facile, theoretically complex without being unruly, and attentive to literary qualities in the chosen texts while sustaining its thematic argument.' - Peter Cryle, Modern Language Review 100.2, 2005, 505-6 * 'This is a successful, richly structured, and thought-provoking exploration of 'the cultural fantasy of necrophilia'.' - Carol Rifelj, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 33, n. 1 and 2, Fall-Winter 2004-2005"
Abstract This article proposes Noordzee, Texas, a romantic coming-of-age drama, as an implicitly ... more Abstract This article proposes Noordzee, Texas, a romantic coming-of-age drama, as an implicitly queer film. Noordzee portrays boys falling in love without engaging in gay identity politics, while also queering a working-class and Belgian context through a combination of aesthetic techniques, including language choice. Its queerness lies in its blend of subverting and ignoring various identity discourses — national, formal and sexual. Its production history illustrates the added difficulty of making a queer film in the complex industry environment that is Belgium. First, the article examines Noordzee in its visual and cultural contexts, explaining its mise-en-scène as being recognizably Belgian but also subverting aspects of Belgianness. The film’s approach to the nation mirrors its depiction of homosexuality independent of identity labels, both strategies drawing on innovations in iconography, colour and prettiness. Next, the article discusses the film’s production history against the background of the recent Belgian film industry, with the aim of contextualizing fully the claim that making an implicitly queer film is particularly difficult in an industrial milieu where so many social categories, including language, nationality and sexuality, influence the funding process.
and welcomes scholarly submissions from all disciplines. Submission requirements: Submissions sho... more and welcomes scholarly submissions from all disciplines. Submission requirements: Submissions should be less than forty pages and sent in electronic form, on a Compact Disc or via email, in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with two-inch side margins. All maps, charts, and graphs must be camera ready. Each article should be accompanied by an Abstract with keywords and have an Introduction. Documentation format should follow a style appropriate to the discipline: MLA for humanities and APA for social and behavioral sciences. Please include a removable cover page giving the institutional affiliations, positions, and highest degrees earned of all authors, as well as a return address and the article title; the article itself must carry only the title. Papers will be read by a minimum of two reviewers before a publication decision is made. Reviewers' comments and suggestions for revisions will be relayed to the author in a timely manner.
Revue critique de fixxion française contemporaine, Jun 15, 2016
Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ... more Vincent Borel’s first novel, Un ruban noir (1995), can be viewed as a failed experiment in queer ecologist fiction. It not only adopts a generally positive view towards nature, figured broadly and perhaps chiefly aesthetically, but also allies itself with science, particularly ecology and the Gaia hypothesis, in contrast with the generally hostile attitude of sexuality theory in France towards natural science. At the same time it expresses a deep suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry and to a degree of technology, both of which are also highlighted within the work. The novel retains certain ideological problems of nature discourse concerning gender, as distinct from sexuality. It shows a structural misogyny that marks it definitively as a masculinist and gay novel instead of a queer one, even as it successfully proposes a sexual minority vision of ecology.
Sexuality, Iconography, and Fiction in French, 2018
The conclusion reiterates the goal of this book in pursuing the history of queer martyrdom throug... more The conclusion reiterates the goal of this book in pursuing the history of queer martyrdom through a contemporary understanding of the word queer. Dr. Hartford reveals the following conclusions. (a) Two types of martyr figures developed to serve discrete rhetorical purposes. (b) The intended aim of the martyr’s exemplarity is key to its sociocultural influence. (c) The predominance of male vs. female queer martyr figures, and the absence of female writers treating queer martyrs, is extremely important and reflects deep ecclesiastical misogyny. (d) On account of cultural differences, Anglophone scholars can have difficulty in translating and interpreting critical religious discourse in French, including the writings of Foucault as well as queer martyrs. Lastly, the author speculates on possible future directions for queer martyr studies.
This thesis examines the appearance, development and use of queer martyrs as they appear in Frenc... more This thesis examines the appearance, development and use of queer martyrs as they appear in French literature, mainly fiction, during the indicated period. It charts these in relation to two distinct manners of representation used for this leitmotiv. The first, exemplified in Flaubert, approaches it as a vehicle for reconciling divergent, and potentially conflicting philosophies. With the second, observable first in the work of the Belgian Naturalist Georges Eekhoud, the queer martyr becomes a means of asserting a homosexual identity, with chiefly political and pornographic applications.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
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