French Gay Modernism (review)

In his new book, Lawrence Schehr examines the portrayals of “overtly gay male characters having social and often sexual relations with one another” (1) in French narratives from the first four decades of the twentieth century. Schehr’s latest study is unique in that he analyzes these discursive strategies in selected works by both canonical French literary figures—Marcel Proust, André Gide and Jean Cocteau—and popular writers—Francis Carco, Francis de Miomandre, Abel Hermant, Willy (Henri Gauthier-Villars), and Suzanne de Callias (Ménalkas).