Nineteenth-Century French Gay Male Literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

C J Gomolka (DePaul University)

Ed. by Nigel Harkness, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Domains

Literature Topic
Movements, styles and periods (literature)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1785-1904

Places

France (Location)

Cultural Identities

LGBTQ

Resources

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In 1789 the absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed under the weight of radical social upheaval. What followed was nothing less than an epic transformation of French society; among the many changes was the French Penal Code of 1791, adopted by the Constituent Assembly, influenced by Enlightenment thinking, and therefore staunchly opposed to Catholic morality. Not surprising then that the pre-1789 laws that criminalized sodomy would be left out of this code as well as the Napoleonic code of 1810. Small in scale compared to the mammoth rewriting of French civil and penal codes, the omission of sodomy laws inaugurated a new era for nineteenth-century gay men. This, coupled with the emergent scientific study of sexology and criminology (Tardieu 1859; Lombroso 1887),…

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6454 words

Citation: Gomolka, C J. "Nineteenth-Century French Gay Male Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 April 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19326, accessed 22 November 2024.]