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Introduction to the module

Core reading

There is no core reading for this introductory session but see immediately below.

Preparation for seminar discussion

  1. Watch this video of Christiane Taubira's speech of 29 January 2013 presenting the law on same-sex marriage to the Assemblée Nationale.
  2. Identify and be ready to discuss the references to the history of the French Republic and to Republican values in this speech.
  3. What objections does Taubira envisage and attempt to counter?
  4. "Enfin le mariage devient une institution universelle". Do you agree? (Give reasons for your answer.)
  5. Read and summarise in note form the argument in these two extracts:

Further reading

  • de Beauvoir, Simone, Le Deuxième Sexe (Paris: Gallimard, 1949). See here.
  • Best, Victoria & Crowley, Martin, The New Pornographies: Explicit Sex in Recent French Fiction and Film (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007). See here.
  • Cervulle, Maxime and Rees-Roberts, Nick, Homo Exoticus: race, classe et critique queer (Paris: Armand Colin, 2010). See here.
  • Fabre, Clarisse & Fassin, Éric, Liberté, Egalité, Sexualités: Actualité politique des questions sexuelles (Paris: Belfond, 2003). See here.
  • Foucault, Michel, Histoire de la sexualité I, La volonté de savoir (Paris: Gallimard, 1976). See here.
  • Gunther, Scott, ​The Elastic Closet: A History of Homosexuality in France 1942-present​ (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Details of print copy here. Available via the Library as an e-book here.
  • Jackson, Julian, Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, Politics, and Morality in France from the Liberation to AIDS (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009). See here.
  • Robinson, Christopher, Scandal in the Ink: Male and Female Homosexuality in Twentieth-century French Literature (London: Cassell, 1995). See here.
  • Rubin, Gayle, ‘Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality’, in Carole S. Vance (ed.), Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (London: Routledge, 1984), pp. 267-319. For details of printed book see here. Available as scanned extract here.
  • Warner, Michael (ed.), Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory ​(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993). See here.

Slides

Will be posted here after the teaching session.