Gay Signatures: Gay and Lesbian Theory, Fiction and Film in France, 1945-1995: v. 19 (Berg French Studies Series) - Hardcover

Owen Heathcote, Alex Hughes & James S. Williams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1859739822 ISBN 13: 9781859739822

Publisher: Berg Publishers, 1998

Synopsis

This interdisciplinary book responds to the explosion of gay and lesbian creativity on modern-day France. Rather than attempting to formalize a specifically gay' or lesbian' style or identity, the authors seek to open up new homotextualities,' understood here as ongoing constructions and deconstructions of both homosexuality and its environments. They investigate the work of (among others) Violette Leduc, Tony Duvert, Renaud Camus, and Guy Hocquenghem; the cinema of Josiane Balasko and Cyril Collard; the theoretical writings of Leo Bersani, Luce Irigaray, and Monique Wittig. Employing a range of methods, authors re-evaluate and contest both the literary and theoretical canon and establish new convergences between French and Gay Studies - in particular, queer theory. This book provides the first proper assessment of the usefulness of this approach when dealing with a literary and cultural tradition notoriously discreet about the very concept of a gay writer.

About this title

Review:

"Original, cogently argued, and well researched." --MLR

"A very welcome collection." --FS

"A consistently challenging, accessible, and amply documented set of essays which avoid the naivetes of earlier criticism." --Forum for Modern Language Studies

"The individual chapters offer thoughtful, well-argued insights into gay literature in contemporary France." --The Lesbian Review of Books

"...all the contributors...write sharply, deploying contemporary theory with a command that makes their work pleasurable as well as intellectually rigorous reading." --Film and Theory Review

About the Author:

Owen Heathcote Dept of Modern Languages,University of Bradford Alex Hughes Professor in French Studies, University of Birmingham James S. Williams Senior Lecturer in French and Comparative Literature, University of Kent

About this edition

• Publisher: Berg Publishers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1859739822
• ISBN 13: 9781859739822
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Owen Heathcote Alex Hughes & James S. Williams