Skip to main content
Palgrave Macmillan

Sexuality, Iconography, and Fiction in French

Queering the Martyr

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

  • Examines a range of French and Belgian authors
  • Explores the idea of the “martyr” in the context of queer theory
  • Takes a broad look at the historical and religious influences on French literature beyond the canonical Catholic novel

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book explores the modern cultural history of the queer martyr in France and Belgium. By analyzing how popular writers in French responded to Catholic doctrine and the tradition of St. Sebastian in art, Queering the Martyr shows how religious and secular symbols overlapped to produce not one, but two martyr-types. These are the queer type, typified first by Gustave Flaubert, which is a philosophical foil, and the gay type, popularized by Jean Genet but created by the Belgian Georges Eekhoud, which is a political and pornographic device. Grounded in feminist queer theory and working from a post-psychoanalytical point of view, the argument explores the potential and limits of these two figures, noting especially the persistence of misogyny in religious culture. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Merton College, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Jason James Hartford

About the author

Jason Hartford is Stipendiary Lecturer in French at Merton College, Oxford, UK. He publishes on modern fictional, filmic, and theoretical topics, working from a comparative, cognitive, and queer-theoretical perspective. He has taught at the universities of Grenoble, Oxford, Sheffield, Avignon, Exeter, Stirling, Maynooth, and Chester. This is his first book. 

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us