Pederasts and Others: Urban Culture and Sexual Identity in Nineteenth-Century Paris

by Peniston; William

• ISBN13: 9781560234869
• ISBN10: 1560234865
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-08-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

A unique social history, Pederasts and Others: Urban Culture and Sexual Identity in Nineteenth-Century Paris is a valuable addition to the growing field of gay and lesbian studies. The book (A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title for 2005) examines the interaction between the city's male homosexual subculture and Parisian authority figures who attempted to maintain political and social order during the early years of the French Third Republic by using laws against public indecency and sexual assault to treat same-sex sexuality as a crime. Faced with a constant cycle of surveillance, harassment, and arrest, the city's gay men survived the hostile urban environment by forming a community of support that had a widespread and lasting influence on the development of modern sexual identities.

Author Biography

William A. Peniston is Manager of the Library and Archives at the Newark Museum in New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
PART I: THE FARCES OF AUTHORITY	11	(56)
Chapter 1. The Laws	13	(10)
Chapter 2. The Police	23	(12)
Chapter 3. The Police in the 1870s	35	(8)
Chapter 4. The Magistrates	43	(8)
Chapter 5. The Doctors	51	(14)
Chapter 6. Summary	65	(2)
PART II. THE SUBCULTURE	67	(82)
Chapter 7. Composition	71	(20)
Chapter 8. Sexual Behavior	91	(18)
Chapter 9. Social Relations	109	(18)
Chapter 10. Geography	127	(18)
Chapter 11. Summary	145	(4)
PART III: CASE STUDIES	149	(46)
Chapter 12. A Decadent Aristocrat and a Delinquent Boy	151	(12)
Chapter 13. Pederasts, Prostitutes, and Pickpockets	163	(14)
Chapter 14. Love and Death in Gay Paris	177	(16)
Chapter 15. Summary	193	(2)
Conclusion	195	(6)
Notes	201	(36)
Bibliography	237	(14)
Index	251