Queer, Gender and Crime Fiction in French Studies: a Hazardous Scientific Endeavour

This article focuses on the multifaceted challenge faced by academics doing queer and gender studies of French crime fiction. It argues that the French literary arena still entertains a sharp divide between literature and commercialist mass fiction, which hinders the establishment of popular fiction studies. It further discusses the reasons for and the effect of queer theory’s late arrival to France, arguing that France’s strong republican ideal entails a fear of ghettoization that has undermined the development of gender and queer analysis, especially of literature. These phenomena, in combination with France’s centralized, traditionalist academic institutions and linguistic franco-centrism, contribute to the fact that there are no queer studies of French crime fiction to date. The article concludes by suggesting some possible approaches within the very diverse and elusive field of queer studies that would be suitable for crime fiction analysis and highlights the importance of paying attention to geographical and temporal contexts in such analyses

Le chercheur queer et le roman historique : quelques défis de Marguerite Yourcenar

Cet article aborde la question du contexte dans une analyse queer des romans historiques. Trois niveaux historiques s’entremêlent dans une analyse contemporaine des romans historiques écrits avant l’arrivée de l’activisme et de la théorie queer, c’est-à-dire la période recréée, le contexte de l’auteur et celui de l’analyste. L’approche généalogique des études queer suppose une contextualisation, mais ne précise pas lequel de ces contextes devrait être considéré comme étant le plus significatif pour une analyse queer. Cet article étudie trois romans de Marguerite Yourcenar : Alexis ou le Traité du vain combat, Mémoires d’Hadrien et L’Œuvre au noir et démontre qu’il est important d’envisager ces trois contextes pour identifier les manières spécifiques dont le thème de la sexualité est traité dans ces textes.This article addresses the issue of context in a queer analysis of historical novels. Three historical levels intertwine in a contemporary analysis of historical novels written prior to the advent of queer activism and theory, i.e. the recreated period, the context of the author and that of the analyst. The genealogical approach of queer studies postulates contextualization, but does not specify which of these contexts should be considered most significant for a queer analysis. The article explores three novels by Marguerite Yourcenar: Alexis ou le Traité du vain combat [Alexis], Mémoires d’Hadrien [Memoirs of Hadrian] and L’Œuvre au noir [The Abyss] and demonstrates the importance of considering all three contexts for identifying the specific ways in which the theme of sexuality is treated in those texts

The adaptation of three Manchette néo-polars to Machette-Tardi’s graphic novels

Cultural adaptations have existed for a long time (Hutcheon & O’Flynn 2013). This article discusses adaptation from one narrative genre, the textual néo-polar crime novel, to another, multimodal comics. It explores three of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s néo-polars that have been adapted by Jacques Tardi to three graphic novels: Ô dingos, ô châteaux! (Folle à tuer), Le petit bleu de la côte Ouest and La position du tireur couché. The analysis suggests that Tardi remains attached to the fidelity paradigm while he also exploits characteristic features of comics, and his own personal style. While Tardi seemingly wishes to be respectful to his former friend Manchette’s novels, he creates adaptations that can be read without prior knowledge of the adapted works and which function as independent graphic novels in a recognizable Tardian style.</p

Corps déviants dans le roman policier français : transgressions et/ou réitérations de normes genrées

This article studies the deviant bodies of detectives in crime novels written by Brigitte Aubert, Virginie Brac, Pierre Lemaitre and Fred Vargas. The deviant body is either too big or too small according to gender expectations in Lemaitre’s and Vargas’s work, where its role is limited to characterization. The allusions to the intersex body of Brac’s character Véra Cabral creates a secondary mystery alongside the criminal investigation. Aubert introduces a trans* investigator in transition in Transfixions, while the trans* protagonist is both murderer and victim in Une âme de trop. The study explores these bodies’ function in the narratives, and how they relate to the plot. Furthermore, it asks whether they encourage the challenging of gender norms, or end up repeating them

Constructions du genre dans le roman policier « anti-norme » de Fred Vargas

Constructing Gender in Fred Vargas’s Anti-Normative Crime Fiction Fred Vargas’s crime novels do not fit into any established type of the crime genre. Defying the existence of an ordinary person, the author creates singular characters with odd behaviours and extraordinary capacities, partly in order to challenge gender norms. These characters question existing notions of femininity and masculinity, while at the same time revealing what the author believes to be traditional images of male and female attributes and behaviours, and thereby they implicitly reproduce. Physical appearance, weight in particular, is a central aspect of all female characters intended to challenge gender norms, whereas the male characters display a more diverse approach. The characterisation of such female protagonists seems to be directed primarily against a social norm defining femininity as “tallness, slimness and beauty,” whereas the extraordinary features of the male characters relate more clearly to previous models of investigators found in the crime genre. Key words: Fred Vargas, crime fiction, gender, literary genre. Le roman policier est marqu

Pluralité et fluidité antinormatives : étude sur les transgressions sexuelles dans l’oeuvre romanesque de Marguerite Yourcenar

Avhandlingen är en studie i kön, genus och sexualitet i den franska författarinnan Marguerite Yourcenars romaner. Undersökningen utgår från ett queer-teoretiskt perspektiv och har som syfte att belysa de olika sätt på vilka Yourcenars texter uttrycker ett ifrågasättande av och ett överskridande av normer beträffande kön, manlighet och kvinnlighet, samt sexuella kategorier. Det tudelade könssystemet (man/kvinna) och motsättningen mellan heterosexualitet och homosexualitet ses som förenklade sociala konstruktioner som inte motsvarar den mångfasetterade verklighet som avbildas i texterna. Mångfald, flyktighet och gränsöverskridande är nyckelord i undersökningen. I avhandlingen granskas snart när alla Yourcenars romaner samt en novell i form av separata läsningar, för att ge en så heltäckande bild som möjligt av hur problematiken behandlas i hennes produktion. Således belyses särarten hos varje verk och det är även möjligt att uppmärksamma den utveckling som skett under karriärens gång. Kön och sexualitet diskuteras separat i enlighet med Gayle Rubins och Eve Sedgwicks tes att sexualitetsforskning och genusstudier inte bör sammanblandas: sexualitet är ett så komplext fenomen att kön och genus är otillräckliga analysverktyg för en seriös och djuplodande diskussion. Genom att lyfta fram olika exempel på figurer i Yourcenars romaner som implicit eller explicit tar avstånd ifrån en klar indelning i män och kvinnor, respektive manlighet och kvinnlighet, påvisas att tanken att det existerar två olika biologiska kön systematiskt tillbakavisas. Diskussionen om sexualitetstemat koncentrerar sig på förhållandet mellan homo-och heterosexualitet, men betonar även hur temat anknyter till andra centrala teman, såsom religion och ras. Bilden av homosexualitet ändrar från en text till en annan, vilket illusterar att en skarp motsättning mellan homo- och heterosexualitet är ohållbar

Le chercheur queer et le roman historique : quelques défis de Marguerite Yourcenar

This article addresses the issue of context in a queer analysis of historical novels. Three historical levels intertwine in a contemporary analysis of historical novels written prior to the advent of queer activism and theory, i.e. the recreated period, the context of the author and that of the analyst. The genealogical approach of queer studies postulates contextualization, but does not specify which of these contexts should be considered most significant for a queer analysis. The article explores three novels by Marguerite Yourcenar: Alexis ou le Traité du vain combat [Alexis], Mémoires d’Hadrien [Memoirs of Hadrian] and L’Œuvre au noir [The Abyss] and demonstrates the importance of considering all three contexts for identifying the specific ways in which the theme of sexuality is treated in those texts

The adaptation of three Manchette néo-polars to Machette-Tardi’s graphic novels

Cultural adaptations have existed for a long time (Hutcheon &amp; O’Flynn 2013). This article discusses adaptation from one narrative genre, the textual néo-polar crime novel, to another, multimodal comics. It explores three of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s néo-polars that have been adapted by Jacques Tardi to three graphic novels: Ô dingos, ô châteaux! (Folle à tuer), Le petit bleu de la côte Ouest and La position du tireur couché. The analysis suggests that Tardi remains attached to the fidelity paradigm while he also exploits characteristic features of comics, and his own personal style. While Tardi seemingly wishes to be respectful to his former friend Manchette’s novels, he creates adaptations that can be read without prior knowledge of the adapted works and which function as independent graphic novels in a recognizable Tardian style

Le polar en Europe : réécritures du genre

Ce numéro privilégie les regards croisés pour aborder, à travers le roman policier, les notions de genre (littéraires et sexués), les questionnements sur l’élaboration d’une hiérarchie littéraire et sur la fonction sociale du roman. Il démontre également l’enracinement du polar dans le réel et la façon dont ses règles supposément restrictives offrent à l’auteur dissident la possibilité de défier l’idéologie dominante, d’offrir à un public complice, ou pas, une lecture séditieuse du monde, de son histoire et de nous mettre face à nos propres préjugés et préconceptions. Ce numéro réunit donc des universitaires français et britanniques, dans le but de favoriser un dialogue à la fois multidisciplinaire et multinational, qui reflète les courants actuels de la critique. Il comprend des articles sur le polar français ainsi que sur le Krimi allemand des années 1940 et le roman policier anglais de l’après-guerre, mais aussi sur la question toujours épineuse du statut du polar dans la littérature