Guy Hocquenghem (; 10 December 1946 – 28 August 1988) was a French writer, philosopher, and queer theorist.

Biography

Hocquenghem was born in the suburbs of Paris and was educated at the

Lycée Lakanal Lycée Lakanal is a public secondary school in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, France, in the Paris metropolitan area. It was named after Joseph Lakanal, a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France. The school also offers a midd ...

in Sceaux and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. At the age of fifteen he began an affair with his high school philosophy teacher, René Scherer. They remained lifelong friends. His participation in the May 1968 student rebellion in France formed his allegiance to the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, which later expelled him because of his

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

. Hocquenghem taught philosophy at the University of Vincennes-Saint Denis, Paris and wrote numerous novels and works of theory. He was the staff writer for the French publication ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France's ...

''. Hocquenghem was a prominent member of the

Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire The front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire ( en, Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action) (FHAR) was a loose Parisian movement founded in 1971, resulting from a union between lesbian feminists and gay activists. If the movement could be con ...

(FHAR), originally formed by

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

and feminist activists who split from the Mouvement Homophile de France in 1971. With filmmaker Lionel Soukaz (b. 1953), Hocquenghem wrote and produced a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

about gay history, ''Race d'Ep!'' (1979) the last word of the title being a play on the word ''pédé'', a French slur for gay men. Though Hocquenghem had a significant impact on leftist thinking in France, his reputation has failed to grow to international prominence. Only two of his theoretical tracts, '' Homosexual Desire'' (1972) and ''L'Après-Mai des faunes'' (1974), and his first novel, ''L'Amour en relief'' (1982) have been translated into English. Although ''Race d'Ep!'' was shown at the Roxie Cinema in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in April 1980 and released in America as ''The Homosexual Century'', like Hocquenghem, the film is virtually unknown.

Career

Hocquenghem's ''Homosexual Desire'' (1972, English translation 1978) may be the first work of Queer Theory. Drawing on the theories of

desiring-production Desiring-production (french: production désirante) is a term coined by the French thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their book ''Anti-Oedipus'' (1972). Overview Deleuze and Guattari oppose the Freudian conception of the unconscious ...

developed by

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

and

Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and ecosophy with Arne Næss, ...

in their ''

Capitalism and Schizophrenia ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et Schizophrénie) is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, respectively a philosopher and a psychoanalyst. Its volumes are ''Anti-Oedipus'' ...

'' project (1972–1980), Hocquenghem critiqued the influential models of the psyche and sexual desire derived from the psychoanalysts

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

and

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...

. The author also addressed the relation of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...

to sexualities, the dynamics of desire, and the political effects of gay group-identities. Moreover, he repudiated the prospect of a new gay 'social organisation' of politics, along with the injunction to sacrifice oneself in the name of future generations. The sociologist Jeffrey Weeks's 1978 preface to the first English translation of ''Homosexual Desire'' situates the essay in relation to the various, mostly French, theories of subjectivity and desire surrounding and influencing Hocquenghem's thought. It was republished in French in 2000. Additionally, Hocquenghem wrote the following works: * ''L'Après-Mai des faunes'' (1974) is the second and untranslated queer-theoretical text. * ''Co-ire, album systématique de l'enfance'' (''Co-anger: systematic album of childhood'') (1976) examines childhood sexuality from a Marxist perspective, co-written with professor René Schérer. It is rumored that Schérer and Hocquenghem had an affair in 1959, when the latter was 15. * ''Fin de section'' (1976) is a short story collection. * ''La Dérive homosexuelle'' (1977) is the third and untranslated queer-theoretical text. * ''La Beauté du métis'' (1979) analyzed French anti-Arab feeling and homophobia. * ''L'Amour en relief'' (''Love in Relief'') (1982, English translation 1985) is Hocquenghem's first and most famous novel. A blind Tunisian boy explores French society and discovers the ways in which pleasure can form a resistance to totalitarianism. The novel contextualizes homosexual desire as a resistance to

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

. * ''La Colère de l'agneau'' (''The Wrath of the Lamb'') (1985) is an experiment in millenarian and apocalyptic narrative, taking St. John the Evangelist as its subject. * ''L'Âme atomique'' (''The Atomic Heart'') (1986) was written partly in response to Hocquenghem's deteriorating health, again in collaboration with Schérer. This work espouses a philosophy composed of dandyism,

gnosticism Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...

, and

epicureanism Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism. Few writings by Epi ...

. * ''Open letter to those who moved from Mao collars to Rotary wheels, Marseilles, Agone'' (1986) was republished in 2003 with a foreword by Serge Halimi. * ''Eve'' (1987) is a narrative which combines the story of

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

with a description of the changes in the body from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

-related symptoms, written as Hocquenghem's own body deteriorated. * ''Voyages et aventures extraordinaires du Frère Angelo'' (1988) explores the mind of an Italian monk accompanying the conquistadors to the New World.

''The Screwball Asses''

''The Screwball Asses'' (''Les Culs Énergumènes'', lit. ''The Energetic Asses'') is an essay which originally appeared in the twelfth (March 1973) issue of ''Recherches'', a French journal. Edited by

and the FHAR, the issue was devoted to homosexuality; the issue bore the title ''Trois milliards de pervers: Grande Encyclopédie des Homosexualités'' (Three Billion Perverts: Grand Encyclopedia of Homosexualities). Shortly after publication, copies of the issue were seized by French authorities; the issue was ordered destroyed, and Guattari was fined 600 francs for his role in the issue's creation. ''The Screwball Asses'' was published in English in 2010, with authorship attributed to Hocquenghem. However according to Hocquenghem's biographer Antoine Idier, the author of the text is not Hocquenghem but the French writer Christian Maurel. A German translation of the text is published in September 2019 by the publishing house August Verlag with the attribution to Christian Maurel, under the title ''Für den Arsch''. ''The Screwball Asses'' is a critique of various issues in

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...

and

gay culture Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including '' ...

, using Marxist and Freudian vocabulary: The author describes the "ghetto" of gay male life in 1970s France, which in his account is often confined to cruising in public restrooms. Hypocrisy among gay men and left-wing activists is also criticized; the author describes the sexual attraction of white gay Frenchmen to Arab men as a form of

white guilt White guilt is a belief that white people bear a collective responsibility for the harm which has resulted from historical or current racist treatment of people belonging to other racial groups, as for example in the context of the Atlantic slave ...

, and he decries the tendency in left-wing circles to denounce speakers who use "suspect" words in good faith. The author rejects psychological theories which explain homosexuality as the result of a psychological defect, or unresolved conflict. He also explains gay male archetypes and binaries (e.g. "''uber''-male or sub-male, black or white, Arab or Viking, top or bottom, and so forth") as forms of

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...

which are caused by

heteronormative Heteronormativity is the concept that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most ...

socialization with heterosexuals, which in turn is informed by capitalism. The author also laments the gay/lesbian split within the FHAR, suggests that homophobia among heterosexuals is a

defense mechanism In psychoanalytic theory, a defence mechanism (American English: defense mechanism), is an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and o ...

against

latent homosexuality Latent homosexuality is an erotic attraction toward members of the same sex that is not consciously experienced or expressed in overt action. This may mean a hidden inclination or potential for interest in homosexual relationships, which is eith ...

, and touches on the concept of

bisexual erasure Bisexual erasure or bisexual invisibility is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can inclu ...

as it relates to gay or straight people ( monosexuals) whose partners could, theoretically, leave them for a partner of the other sex. He also provides a personal detail which is incongruous with Hocqhenghem's purported authorship: "It's lucky I'm gay, because I give a bad impression at the FHAR. As gay as I am, I've been with the same man for eighteen years. (You can't say I've got the right ticket for the revolution!)"''The Screwball Asses'', pp. 70-71.

Death

Hocquenghem died of AIDS-related complications on 28 August 1988, aged 41.

Works

* ''Homosexual Desire'' (1972), English translation (1978) * ''The Screwball Asses'' (1973) (English translation by Noura Wedell, Semiotext(e), 2010) * ''L'Après-Mai des faunes'' (1974) (Published in English as ) * ''Co-ire, album systématique de l'enfance'' (''Co-anger: systematic album of childhood'', with René Schérer) (1976) * ''Fin de section'' (1976) short stories * ''La Dérive homosexuelle'' (1977) * ''La Beauté du métis'' (1979) * ''Gay Travels: guide and glance homosexual over the large metropolises'' (1980) * ''Love in Relief'' (1982, English translation 1985) * ''La Colère d'agneau'' (''The Wrath of the Lamb'') (1985) * ''L'Âme atomique'' (''The Atomic Heart'', with René Schérer) (1986) * ''Open letter to those who moved from Mao Collars to Rotary Wheels'' (1986) * ''Eve'' (1987) * * *

Notes

References

External links

*
Biography at GLBTQ

English translation of ''The Screwball Asses''

''Les Culs Énergumènes'', original French text of ''The Screwball Asses''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocquenghem, Guy 1946 births 1988 deaths 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French novelists AIDS-related deaths in France Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery École Normale Supérieure alumni French male essayists French male novelists Gay academics French gay writers French LGBT novelists French LGBT rights activists Lycée Lakanal alumni Marxist theorists Philosophers of sexuality Queer theorists LGBT philosophers