“A wind of revolution sweeps through these pages, which bring the radical thought of influential French gay liberationist Guy Hocquenghem to Anglophone readers. Gay Liberation after May ’68 anticipates both queer and trans theory by refusing every politics of respectability in order to theorize a radical transversalism that dissolves all identities, corrodes all institutions, and sweeps away ‘civilization’ itself in favor of a better world to come.” Kadji Amin, author of Disturbing Attachments: Genet, Modern Pederasty, and Queer History
“An immense gift to queer theory, Gay Liberation after May ’68 promises to bring a new generation of English-language readers to Guy Hocquenghem; these readers can use this text as a blueprint for activism to interrupt and hopefully dismantle the gross structural inequities that shape our present world.” Benjamin Kahan, author of Celibacies: American Modernism and Sexual Life
About the Contributors
Guy Hocquenghem (1946–88) taught philosophy at the University of Vincennes, Paris. An activist and pioneering queer theorist, he was the author of many books, including Homosexual Desire, also published by Duke University Press, as well as a staff writer for the French publication Libération and a founding member of the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire.
Gilles Deleuze (1925–95) was one of the most influential and prolific philosophers of the twentieth century.
Scott Branson is a writer and translator who teaches at Appalachian State University.
Table of Contents
A Note on Terminology vii
Translator's Introduction: A Queer Anarchism That Dare Not Speak Its Name ix
Foreword / Gilles Deleuze 1
Volutions 6
1. Black November 13
2. Cultural Revolution 17
3. After-May Politics of the Self 38
4. Youth Culture/Pop High 62
5. Fags 79
6. Motorcycles 102
7. MLF-FHAR: Toward What End? 107
Translator's Notes 119
Index 153