Queer Paradox/Paradoxical Queer

Abstract

This paper shows how Anne Garréta's Pas un jour (2002) is a decidedly queer text, in both the new and the old sense of that contested epithet. I examine three interrelated concerns central to Pas un jour. First, I analyze Garréta's mediation of desire in general: her own experiences of it; modalities thereof which subvert more ‘normative’ models of lesbianism; and her convergences with other gay, but male writers and theorists of desire such as Guy Hocquenghem, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. Second, I interrogate Garréta's dichotomy between desire and friendship, and adumbrate contrasts with Foucauldian theory. Finally, I scrutinize the meaning and value attributed to the particular body of desire with which Garréta is most commonly associated-homosexuality-and their links with those of a contemporary gay male writer, Dominique Fernandez.

Key Words:

• Body
• desire
• gender
• lesbian
• lesboerotic
• queer
• paradox
• postmodern
• sex