Le Vice Italien: Philippe d'Orleans and Constructing the Sodomite in Seventeenth-Century France
Item
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Title
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Le Vice Italien: Philippe d'Orleans and Constructing the Sodomite in Seventeenth-Century France
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:e2c0be7132bb:11988
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identifier
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12672
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Creator
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Hosford, Desmond,
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Contributor
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Domna C. Stanton
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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European studies | LGBTQ studies | Romance literature | Louis de Bourbon | prince de Condé (1621-86) | Louis XIII | Louis XIV | masculinity | Philippe de France | duc d'Orléans (1640-1701)) | sodomy
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Abstract
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In seventeenth-century France, sexual acts among men did not correspond to modern notions of "homosexuality," which developed during the nineteenth century. Instead, biblical and civil law designated such acts as "sodomy," which was cast as an Italian vice and did not constitute a sexual identity. The sexual practices of sodomites might involve only men, or they might also involve women, and the ways in which those acts were linked to stereotypes of masculinity, femininity, and effeminacy changed over the course of the century. Across a continuum ranging from non-sexual homosociality to sodomy, the performance of masculinity was grounded in dynastic imperatives and the display of armed prowess rather than sexuality. During the early part of the century, Louis de Bourbon, prince de Conde (1621--86) and Louis XIII followed in a tradition of warrior sodomites extending back to Greco-Roman and Judaic culture, but by the end of the century, due to the rise of salon and court civility, which required new ways of performing masculinity off the battlefield, the sodomite had become associated with the degraded effemine. Philippe de France, duc d'Orleans (1640--1701), only brother of Louis XIV and known at court as Monsieur, is an emblematic figure in this shift. To explore the construction of the sodomite in seventeenth century France, theoretical matters of terminology, including the meaning of "sodomie" and "sodomite" are discussed first; then the evolution of the sodomite from warrior to effemine is traced over the course of the century via the civilizing process through which warriors became courtiers; next, how Monsieur's image as a warrior functioned within dynastically-oriented discourse is established; and finally, it is shown how, through the manipulation of Monsieur's natural inclinations for warring and effeminacy (associated in his case with cross-dressing) by Mazarin, Anne d'Autriche, and Louis XIV, his identity as a masculine warrior was sacrificed in favor of his role as effemine in response to dynastic demands.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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French
