The Pink And The Black: Homosexuals In France Since 1968 by Frederic Martel, 1996, re-published in English, 1999 Stanford University Press, California.
Inside Cover (where they have publisher, ISBN copyright etc) includes this rather unexpected (to me) quote:
‘The mention of a name in this book does not imply that the individual inquestion posesses some dubious ‘homosexual identity’. Similarly, books, films, and songs are cited not because they are ‘homosexual works’ – an expression with little meaning- but rather because they play a role in the colective memory of ‘homosexuals’ regardless of their creators intentions’.
Now isn’t that queer as disclaimers go?
I don’t know what to make of it. The book was published in France in 1996 and America in 1999. I have read a lot of books about ‘homosexual’ cultural forms and I have never seen a statement like that on the inside cover of a book, as if someone could get sued for libel, for claiming an artist or writer was ‘homosexual’ just by being included in a book about homosexuals. Is this a French thing?
Michel? Roland?
