Notes on a proto-queer Rachilde
Decadence, deviance and (reverse) discourse in La Marquise de Sade
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8001891 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lisa Downing (0000-0001-9241-7572, University of Exeter, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 16-27 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sexualities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1363460711432093 |
| OpenAlex | W2325552662 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 6 |
This article explores new ways in which the French female Decadent writer Rachilde (Marguerite Eymery Vallette, 1860–1953) may be profitably viewed as a ‘proto-queer’ writer. While previous published works argue for Rachilde as ‘proto-queer’ primarily by analysing her games with gendered language and gender inversion, this article contends that Rachilde's deployment of discourses of sexual perversion against the ideological grain places her writing into a queer genealogy. The argument is developed via a close reading of Rachilde's novel of 1887, La Marquise de Sade. Her use of female death-driven perversion as a strategy of anti-social critique in this novel can be productively read alongside recent queer criticisms of reproductive futurism such as those by Lee Edelman
Argument (complex analysis · Art · Decadence · Human sexuality · Ideology · Literature · Perversion · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Queer · Queer theory · Sociology · Decadence, Literature, and Society · French Historical and Cultural Studies · French Literature and Criticism · Gender Studies · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |