LA THÉORIE QUEER APPLIQUÉE À L’ÉCRITURE LESBIENNE ET BISEXUELLE QUÉBÉCOISE: THÉORISATION, MUTATIONS ET DIVERSIFICATION DES RÔ LES SEXUÉS ET DES IDENTITÉS QUEER

LA THÉORIE QUEER APPLIQUÉE À L’ÉCRITURE LESBIENNE ET BISEXUELLE QUÉBÉCOISE: THÉORISATION, MUTATIONS ET DIVERSIFICATION DES RÔ LES SEXUÉS ET DES IDENTITÉS QUEER

This article about the emergence of queer writing in Québec highlights a tendency in Feminine writing in Québec between 1990 and 1995; in other words, how some Québécois feminine poets wrote about intimacy, sensuality, autoerotism, domination of the loved one, plus general sexual themes in imaged approaches. The “fin de siècle” Québécois literature was a particular, transitory moment when some emerging queer authors were active even though within this context, the term “queer” itself was not frequently used then; many scholars were still referring to the broader category “Gay and Lesbian Studies”, without considering all the specific identities such as transgender, transsexual or bisexual. Those less common gender identities have been included since in queer Studies. This timeframe is relatively thin (only six years) and the selected corpus (centered on feminine poetry in Québec) apparently limited, so we can highlight a specific trend. The highlighting of this specific approach applied to the Québécois poetry by women is what makes this article original, and a renewal in Queer Studies. This theoretical framework takes obviously from Queer Studies, Gender Studies, and the Sociology of Literature. This article concludes that even though the term “Queer” itself was uncommon, almost non-existent in Québec during the early 1990s, this era was like a transition for many Québécois feminine poets, exploring intimate themes using the codes and metaphors of poetry to express the various feminine dimensions of sexual desire without any kind of reserve or self-censorship.