My Father and I

David Caron

Description

"It is a living museum of a long-gone Jewish life and, supposedly, a testimony to the success of the French model of social integration. It is a communal home where gay men and women are said to stand in defiance of the French model of social integration. It is a place of freedom and tolerance where people of color and lesbians nevertheless feel unwanted and where young Zionists from the suburbs gather every Sunday and sometimes harass Arabs. It is a hot topic in the press and on television. It is open to the world and open for business. It is a place to be seen and a place of invisibility. It is like a home to me, a place where I feel both safe and out of place and where my father felt comfortable and alienated at the same time. It is a place of nostalgia, innovation, shame, pride, and anxiety, where the local and the global intersect for better and for worse. And for better and for worse, it is a French neighborhood."-from My Father and IMixing personal memoir, urban studies, cultural history, and literary criticism, as well as a generous selection of photographs, My Father and I focuses on the Marais, the oldest surviving neighborhood of Paris. It also beautifully reveals the intricacies of the relationship between a Jewish father and a gay son, each claiming the same neighborhood as his own. Beginning with the history of the Marais and its significance in the construction of a French national identity, David Caron proposes a rethinking of community and looks at how Jews, Chinese immigrants, and gays have made the Marais theirs. These communities embody, in their engagement of urban space, a daily challenge to the French concept of universal citizenship that denies them all political legitimacy. Caron moves from the strictly French context to more theoretical issues such as social and political archaism, immigration and diaspora, survival and haunting, the public/private divide, and group friendship as metaphor for unruly and dynamic forms of community, and founding disasters such as AIDS and the Holocaust. Caron also tells the story of his father, a Hungarian Jew and Holocaust survivor who immigrated to France and once called the Marais home.

Sujets

• LGBTQ+ Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir
• French
• France

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801458422
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

My Father and I

My Father and I

The Marais and the Queerness of Community

David Caron

Cornell University Press ithaca and london

Copyright © 2009 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2009 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caron, David (David Henri) My father and I : the Marais and the queerness of community / David Caron. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-4773-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Marais (Paris, France)—History. 2. Gay community—France—Paris—History. 3. Jewish neighborhoods—France—Paris—History. 4. Homosexuality—France—Paris— History. 5. Jews—France—Paris—History. 6. Gottlieb, Joseph, 1919–2004. 7. Caron, David (David Henri)—Family. I. Title. DC752.M37C37 2009 306.76'6092244361—dc22 2008043686

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible sup- pliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

In memory of Joseph Gottlieb, my father And for all my other friends

IOU

Prologue. My Father and I

Part ITHE MARAIS 1The Old Neighborhood 2A Queer Ghetto

Contents

Part IITHE QUEERNESS OF COMMUNITY 3Things Past 4Disaster, Failure, and Alienation 5The Queerness of Group Friendship

Epilogue. My Father and I

Notes Bibliography Index

[ vii ]

ix

1

25 75

113 150 183

222

243 251 261

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Every book is a community. This one is no exception. I have written it nei- ther for myself nor by myself. It bears the imprint of many friendships and many sources of support, moral and otherwise. Throughout this long pro- cess, I have relied on the kindness of strangers and on the tough and tender demands of those close to me. My father’s dream was to own a bookstore. He never did, but with this book, which is his, he will now be in bookstores. I only wish he had been around to see what he inspired. My writing has allowed me to grow closer to him and to make up for so many years of misunderstanding. I miss him every day. I am particularly indebted to my friends Ross Chambers and Cyril Royer, who have been precious interlocutors from day one. Thinking with them was a challenge and a joy, and they made this book better. Along with Ross and Cyril, Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola and Juli Highfill have given me far more than I could possibly acknowledge here. Jarrod Hayes, Cristina Moreiras-Menor,MartineDelvaux,andLiuHaiyongalsodeservespecial recognition for their friendship, advice, and encouragements. I also thank Lawrence D. Kritzman and Michael Sibalis, who read the manuscript for Cornell University Press and contributed much to its improvement. Peter J. Potter was an ideal editor, wonderfully supportive, engaged, and generous. Thank you all so much. Dilettantism is a lovely ideal but it is also a luxury. A luxury I don’t have. Without the support of institutional structures, I could never do what I love to do—read, write and, think about stuff—and do it for a living. For that I am truly grateful. First of all, I want to acknowledge the various units at the University of Michigan that have made this book possible thanks to their

[ ix ]