Lucille Cairns

Gazon maudit: French national and sexual identities

Gazon maudit, written and directed by Josiane Balasko, was a huge boxoffice hit when it was released in France in 1995:1 a surprising success, perhaps, given the film’s spotlight on lesbianism, a subject not normatively regarded as particularly congenial to mainstream audiences,’ and given, also, the film’s apparent dislocation of that privileged social configuration, the ’normal’ family. In her review of the film for Diva, a British lesbian magazine, Gillian Rodgerson recalls one reaction overheard as the credits rolled: ’the straight, middle-aged woman behind me drawled to her companion: &dquo;So that’s what the French get up to!&dquo; ’ Rodgerson’s anecdote is followed by a claim which makes an interesting starting point for discussion: ’Ironic or not, her remarks do illustrate our view of French sexuality as just somehow more complex and naughty than our own.&dquo; The view summed up by Rodgerson is predicated on the perception of various arguably national traditions: those of French libertinage, French farce, and French contestation of conservative norms. It is a view which can easily over-estimate French tolerance of deviance from norms. The comic tradition of French sauciness has been overwhelmingly heterosexual in structure and logic. Equally, popular forms of entertainment and recreation

Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe

Providing an assessment of Jewish identity, this volume presents critical engagements with a number of Jewish writers and filmmakers from a variety of European countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Poland, and the UK. The novels and films discussed explore the meaning of being Jewish in Europe today, and investigate the extent to which this experience is shaped by factors that lie outside the national context, notably by the relationship to Israel. As the recent attacks on Charlie Hebdo, and the targeting of a Jewish supermarket in Paris, demonstrate, these questions are more pressing than ever, and will challenge Jews, as well as Jewish writers and intellectuals, as they explore the answers. This book was originally published as a special issue of Jewish Culture and History.

Gendered genealogies in North African Jewish women’s writing: The case of Paule Darmon’s Baisse les yeux, Sarah

This article analyses gendered genealogies in an example of North African Jewish women’s writing in French: Paule Darmon’s Baisse les yeux, Sarah (1980), which draws heavily on the author’s personal experience. This autofictional novel recounts the chequered personal history of autodiegetic narrator Sarah Lévy, born to an Algerian father and a Moroccan mother, and raised in Morocco until the age of 17 when her family leave for France. The articles focuses on a three-generational female genealogy of Moroccan-Jewish women, and its problematic relationship with the stereotypical Eastern model of woman. Sarah’s ambivalence towards her matrilineal heritage throws into relief the fault lines that can occur in lines of descent. Although allied with her mother in the latter’s partial rejection of female oppression, she is also sensitive to her mother’s always already subaltern and therefore undesirable status as doubly stigmatized object – female and Oriental – within the French colonial discourses internalized by her father.

Post-feminist pornographication or pro-sex feminism? Queer performativity in the work of two French female artists.

In this essay, I examine contemporary renegotiations of feminism that constitute a challenge not only for self-defined feminists, but also for mainstream interpretive communities, and that in fact have the potential for a quasi-universal impact. I do so by focusing on the work of French female artists and performers Wendy Delorme and Emilie Jouvet. A key question provoked by their work is the extent to which their butch/fem(me) lesbian performances and textual artefacts constitute politically intelligible resistance to hegemonic norms of gender, sex and sexuality. The significance of this question extends well beyond the national boundaries of Delorme and Jouvet’s French identity. Indeed, their counter-discourses to more conventional feminisms have emerged not from any specifically French tradition, but as part of a more global movement. This globality is reflected in both of the texts selected as case-studies below. Delorme’s written text situates itself firmly in a clearly international context of discourses on feminism and sexuality, particularly queer (which is still as yet a relatively new discourse in France). Jouvet’s filmic text has a soundtrack which alternates between French and English, has a focus on performers of three different nationalities (American, French, German), and covers their tour across broad sweeps of Europe (Belgium, Denmark, France, and Germany). Delorme has in the past both taught at the University of Paris and acted in experimental lesbian X-rated films. However, her most notable interventions in the politics of gender and sex have taken the form...This volume sets out to re-imagine the theoretical and epistemological presuppositions of existing scholarship on identities. Despite a well-established body of scholarly texts that examine the concept from a wide range of perspectives, there is a surprising dearth of work on multiple, heterogeneous forms of identity. Numerous studies of ethnic, linguistic, regional and religious identities have appeared, but largely in isolation from one another. Rethinking ‘Identities’ is a multi-authored project that is original in providing – in distributed and granular mode – a hyper-contemporary and wide-ranging applied analysis that questions notions of identity based on nation and region, language, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion or even ‘the human’. The volume achieves this by mobilizing various contexts of identity (gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nation) and medium (art, cinema, literature, music, theatre, video). Emphasizing the extreme contemporary (the twenty-first century) and the challenges posed by an increasingly global society, this collection of essays builds upon existing intellectual investigations of identity with the aim of offering a fresh perspective that transcends cognitive and geographical frontiers.During the early 2000s Great Britain witnessed a considerable rise in numbers of the Russian-speaking former-Soviet migrant population.1 This has been the result of the greatly increased opportunities for migration in most former Soviet states, the eastwards enlargement of the European Union, and the economically driven relaxation of immigration regulations under the UK’s Labour government between 1997 and 2008.2 Although they patently form a linguistically cohesive group, the Russian-speaking migrants discussed here are not easy to define as a group in ethnic, national or diasporic terms. They include individuals arriving from different post-Soviet countries in several successive migrant waves, in a whole range of changing personal, professional and socio-economic circumstances. Their ethnic self-identifications, national loyalties, generational experiences and expressions of mutual solidarity remain complex and flexible, as do their migrant statuses and trajectories. Conceptualizing the ‘Russianness’ of this population is far from straightforward since many of these migrants’ identifications with Russian language, culture and history point to their common upbringing and roots in the former Soviet ‘empire’ rather than to either a particular ethnicity or citizenship. Indeed, both the term rossiiane, meaning ‘citizens of the Russian Federation’, and russkie, meaning ‘ethnic Russians’, are much too narrow and specific to apply to this migrant population as a whole. The term sootechestvenniki (compatriots), deployed by the Russian government in its legislation and policy documents in reference to ‘Russians outside Russia’ as a form of diaspora, is even more problematic on account of...Much has been written about Madrid’s iconic status in Spanish cinema as the epicentre of post-Franco liberation.1 Once symbolic of the totalitarian centrality promoted by the dictatorship, it soon became the site of modernity, urban freedom and jouissance, particularly during the movida (a time of great cultural creativity and social liberation following Franco’s death in the late 1970s and early 1980s) and due in no small part to the way in which it was depicted as some sort of playground in the early Almodovar films. Whilst still retaining some of its old centralist connotations, in the democratic era Madrid has become an icon of the quintessential celebration of difference, a welcoming place where Spaniards from all over the country, tourists and immigrants can live together, and, with some exceptions, it is still often depicted as such in contemporary film, literature and popular culture.2 The Chueca Square area in central Madrid has also experienced a radical evolution and it could be regarded, to some extent, as both a microcosm of the changes experienced in the city and the nation more widely and also a symbol of its openness. Once a semi-derelict and highly undesirable, even dangerous, part of town associated with crime, in the last three decades or so Chueca has become one of the city’s trendiest and priciest neighbourhoods. The barrio underwent a dramatic facelift as Spanish GLBTQ communities adopted it as its national epicentre.3...

Re-thinking ‘identities’ : cultural articulations of alterity and resistance in the new millennium.

In this essay, I examine contemporary renegotiations of feminism that constitute a challenge not only for self-defined feminists, but also for mainstream interpretive communities, and that in fact have the potential for a quasi-universal impact. I do so by focusing on the work of French female artists and performers Wendy Delorme and Emilie Jouvet. A key question provoked by their work is the extent to which their butch/fem(me) lesbian performances and textual artefacts constitute politically intelligible resistance to hegemonic norms of gender, sex and sexuality. The significance of this question extends well beyond the national boundaries of Delorme and Jouvet’s French identity. Indeed, their counter-discourses to more conventional feminisms have emerged not from any specifically French tradition, but as part of a more global movement. This globality is reflected in both of the texts selected as case-studies below. Delorme’s written text situates itself firmly in a clearly international context of discourses on feminism and sexuality, particularly queer (which is still as yet a relatively new discourse in France). Jouvet’s filmic text has a soundtrack which alternates between French and English, has a focus on performers of three different nationalities (American, French, German), and covers their tour across broad sweeps of Europe (Belgium, Denmark, France, and Germany). Delorme has in the past both taught at the University of Paris and acted in experimental lesbian X-rated films. However, her most notable interventions in the politics of gender and sex have taken the form...This volume sets out to re-imagine the theoretical and epistemological presuppositions of existing scholarship on identities. Despite a well-established body of scholarly texts that examine the concept from a wide range of perspectives, there is a surprising dearth of work on multiple, heterogeneous forms of identity. Numerous studies of ethnic, linguistic, regional and religious identities have appeared, but largely in isolation from one another. Rethinking ‘Identities’ is a multi-authored project that is original in providing – in distributed and granular mode – a hyper-contemporary and wide-ranging applied analysis that questions notions of identity based on nation and region, language, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion or even ‘the human’. The volume achieves this by mobilizing various contexts of identity (gender, ethnicity, sexuality, nation) and medium (art, cinema, literature, music, theatre, video). Emphasizing the extreme contemporary (the twenty-first century) and the challenges posed by an increasingly global society, this collection of essays builds upon existing intellectual investigations of identity with the aim of offering a fresh perspective that transcends cognitive and geographical frontiers.During the early 2000s Great Britain witnessed a considerable rise in numbers of the Russian-speaking former-Soviet migrant population.1 This has been the result of the greatly increased opportunities for migration in most former Soviet states, the eastwards enlargement of the European Union, and the economically driven relaxation of immigration regulations under the UK’s Labour government between 1997 and 2008.2 Although they patently form a linguistically cohesive group, the Russian-speaking migrants discussed here are not easy to define as a group in ethnic, national or diasporic terms. They include individuals arriving from different post-Soviet countries in several successive migrant waves, in a whole range of changing personal, professional and socio-economic circumstances. Their ethnic self-identifications, national loyalties, generational experiences and expressions of mutual solidarity remain complex and flexible, as do their migrant statuses and trajectories. Conceptualizing the ‘Russianness’ of this population is far from straightforward since many of these migrants’ identifications with Russian language, culture and history point to their common upbringing and roots in the former Soviet ‘empire’ rather than to either a particular ethnicity or citizenship. Indeed, both the term rossiiane, meaning ‘citizens of the Russian Federation’, and russkie, meaning ‘ethnic Russians’, are much too narrow and specific to apply to this migrant population as a whole. The term sootechestvenniki (compatriots), deployed by the Russian government in its legislation and policy documents in reference to ‘Russians outside Russia’ as a form of diaspora, is even more problematic on account of...Much has been written about Madrid’s iconic status in Spanish cinema as the epicentre of post-Franco liberation.1 Once symbolic of the totalitarian centrality promoted by the dictatorship, it soon became the site of modernity, urban freedom and jouissance, particularly during the movida (a time of great cultural creativity and social liberation following Franco’s death in the late 1970s and early 1980s) and due in no small part to the way in which it was depicted as some sort of playground in the early Almodovar films. Whilst still retaining some of its old centralist connotations, in the democratic era Madrid has become an icon of the quintessential celebration of difference, a welcoming place where Spaniards from all over the country, tourists and immigrants can live together, and, with some exceptions, it is still often depicted as such in contemporary film, literature and popular culture.2 The Chueca Square area in central Madrid has also experienced a radical evolution and it could be regarded, to some extent, as both a microcosm of the changes experienced in the city and the nation more widely and also a symbol of its openness. Once a semi-derelict and highly undesirable, even dangerous, part of town associated with crime, in the last three decades or so Chueca has become one of the city’s trendiest and priciest neighbourhoods. The barrio underwent a dramatic facelift as Spanish GLBTQ communities adopted it as its national epicentre.3...

Calibrating queer in the work of Didier Eribon

The first aim of this article is to provide an overview of Didier Eribon’s unique input to lesbian and gay politics and studies in France. The second aim is to examine the contours of his engagement with and critique of queer, bearing in mind that queer is, at least theoretically, opposed to the very predicate of fixed identity (such as lesbian and gay) and identity politics. In pursuing the second aim, the article will ‘calibrate’ to what extent Eribon’s thought is queer and/or resists queer, measuring it against a hypothetical norm of queer, and also determining the calibre of that thought. In its conclusion, drawing on Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity, the article considers two issues raised by Eribon’s work: first, the desirability or otherwise of queer politics embracing the agendas of minorities other than the sexual, such as ethnic minorities whose religious beliefs may be hostile to non-heteronormative sexualities; and the relationship of queer to the binary oppositions of universalism/particularism, sameness/difference that structure debate within the context of French Republicanism.

Lieux de mémoire juive: Francine Christophe's Après les camps, la vie and Marceline Loridan-Ivens's La Petite Prairie aux bouleaux

����� ��� places. 1 Nora’s focus was on the memory and heritage of France; mine will be on those of French-speaking Jewry. This choice is apposite for a volume devoted to space and place, since the history of the Jews since the eighth century BCE has been one of spatial dispersal from the spiritual homeland of Israel. The two primary texts treated below are both works by Jewish women of this diaspora who survived deportation to the Nazi concentration and death camps, but decided many years later to (re)visit them. The first text is Francine Christophe’s Apres les camps, la vie (2001), a book combining autobiography and testimony. 2 The second text, examined at greater length, is a film, Marceline Loridan-Ivens’s La Petite Prairie aux bouleaux (2003). 3 I will investigate these women’s negotiations with space and place, along with their memorial investments. (There is now a substantial body of theoretical writing on space and place, a good overview of which is provided by Phil Hubbard’s, Rob Kitchin’s and Gill Valentine’s edited volume Key Thinkers on Space and Place (2004). While the meanings of space and place are obviously cognate, for the purposes of this article I distinguish ‘place’ as a specifically named instance of ‘space.’ In this I concur with Hubbard’s, Kitchin’s and Valentine’s observation: “place emerges as a particular form of space, one that is created through acts of naming as well as the distinctive activities and imaginings associated with particular social spaces.”) 4 Exegeses will be informed by theoretical insights from Jacques Derrida, 5 Martin Heidegger, and Sarah Kofman.

Post-War Jewish Women's Writing in French

As anglophone-based French studies increasingly open up to the purviews and agendas of cultural studies, including those of gender and ethnicity, this essay seeks to remedy a significant gap in that evolution. Beginning with broad synopsis and then moving into closer analysis of individual texts, it plots certain salient coordinates within French-language Jewish womens writing of the post-war period. Particular attention is paid to four broadly representative writers: two authors who, on the whole, appear to exemplify the more traditional concerns of the second generation (Elisabeth Gilles and Myriam Anissimov), and two who, in contrast, exemplify a post-1968 episteme which is informed by, though not reduced to, gendered structures of experience (Eliette Abécassis and Karine Tuil).

Queer paradox/paradoxical queer: Anne Garréta's Pas un jour (2002).

Abstract This paper shows how Anne Garrétas Pas un jour (2002) is a decidedly queer text, in both the new and the old sense of that contested epithet. I examine three interrelated concerns central to Pas un jour. First, I analyze Garrétas mediation of desire in general: her own experiences of it; modalities thereof which subvert more ‘normative’ models of lesbianism; and her convergences with other gay, but male writers and theorists of desire such as Guy Hocquenghem, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. Second, I interrogate Garrétas dichotomy between desire and friendship, and adumbrate contrasts with Foucauldian theory. Finally, I scrutinize the meaning and value attributed to the particular body of desire with which Garréta is most commonly associated-homosexuality-and their links with those of a contemporary gay male writer, Dominique Fernandez.

Lesbian Desire in Post-1968 French Literature

The focus of this work has been almost exclusively on deterosexual women, albeit not necessarily constructed as in the first instance sexual beings. Cairns study focuses on realist texts that appeared after 1968. The importance of that date as a cultural watershed for contemporary France is now a matter of record whereas the concentration on realist fiction goes in some degree against the strongly theoretical and conceptual strain of most of what, especially in France, goes by the name of womens writing.