Introduction to the module
Core reading
There is no core reading for this introductory session but see immediately below.
Preparation for seminar discussion
- Watch this video of Christiane Taubira's speech of 29 January 2013 presenting the law on same-sex marriage to the Assemblée Nationale.
- Identify and be ready to discuss the references to the history of the French Republic and to Republican values in this speech.
- What objections does Taubira envisage and attempt to counter?
- "Enfin le mariage devient une institution universelle". Do you agree? (Give reasons for your answer.)
- 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.