Queer French

Denis M. Provencher is Assistant Professor of French and Intercultural Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA. He has published widely in the field and has had work appear in French Cultural Studies, Contemporary French Civilization, Contemporary French & Francophone Studies (SITES), Speaking in Queer Tongues (2004) and The Sitcom Reader (2005).

• Chapter 1 IntroductionGlobalization and the French (Gay) Resistance; Part 1 Theoretical Considerations; Chapter 1a An Assault on French Gay Culture; Chapter 2 The Next Gene(t)ration: Genet as an Authentic Model for Queer French; Part 2 Everyday Expressions; Chapter 3 French Articulations of the Closet and Coming Out; Chapter 4 S'assumer dans la famille: Coming out in the French (Republican) Family; Chapter 5 Gay Paris: Language, Sexuality, and Space in the French Capital; Chapter 6 ConclusionA Queer French Model for the 21st Century;

'Smart, insightful, and far-reaching in its implications for our understanding of sexualities and sexual politics in contemporary France, Queer French is a must for anyone interested in understanding France at the beginning of the twenty-first century.' Lawrence R. Schehr, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA 'Could queer lives exemplify the elusive third way between seemingly incompatible claims to universalism? Provencher’s original study shows how French queers articulate their own mode of sexual citizenship by incorporating markers of globalized identities into the French republican model. Based on popular culture and actual interviews, this book is a unique contribution to the current debates on globalization and sexuality.' David Caron, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA 'In an important way, Queer French invites the reader to think about how lesbians and gays speak with (each) other(s), how they frame their life narratives and how they inhabit and move through city space. Accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike, this book marks a significant contribution to current debates on language and sexuality.' Modern & Contemporary France '...Provencher’s argument that French gays and lesbians are shaping their own queer French - and that in relation to their Anglo-American counterparts, French gays are not caught in some sort of retarded development on their way to becoming global gay citizens - is not only intriguing, but also entirely compelling, making an important contribution to the study of queer cultures in France certainly, but also to our understanding of the ways in which cultures generally may be resisting or reshaping globalizing Anglo-American ideas...the book reads easily, avoiding the abstruse prose sometimes found in queer theory texts. Provencher’s book should be on the shelves of anyone interested in queer studies, contemporary France, or the cultural effects of globalization.' H-France 'Denis Provench