{"id":700,"date":"2020-04-23T13:54:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=700"},"modified":"2020-04-23T13:54:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:54:58","slug":"queer-identity-in-1920s-france-princesse-edmond-de-polignac-erik-satie-and-francis-poulenc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/04\/23\/queer-identity-in-1920s-france-princesse-edmond-de-polignac-erik-satie-and-francis-poulenc\/","title":{"rendered":"Queer Identity in 1920’s France – Princesse Edmond de Polignac, Erik Satie, and Francis Poulenc"},"content":{"rendered":"

In regard to Dorf’s article, it’s difficult for me – as a straight male – to determine what exactly is considered “queer” or not.\u00a0 Academically speaking, what I do know is that in ancient Greek\/Roman times, homosexuality was not seen as a bad thing.\u00a0 In fact, it was fairly normalized.\u00a0 In ancient Rome (bear with me here) acts of homosexual pleasure were actually encouraged under the guise that a soldier is much more likely to feel a sense of comradery between himself and his fellow-men, as well as to save them if they’re at risk of being slain on the battlefield (another interesting theory I can’t necessarily quote or say is correct: supposedly, olive oil was invented for more than just cooking).\u00a0 In ancient Greece, it was fairly common for young boys to have sex with older men as a rite of passage.\u00a0 These young boys, once they became men, would have completely normal, healthy relationships with wives and children.<\/p>\n

This may be seen as a departure, but from my perspective (provided the fivesome were aware of these aspects of history), I can completely understand why Satie and Polignac were fascinated with ancient Greek culture.\u00a0 Given Paris’ ever-changing and modernizing landscape, and their propensity for lauding over ancient Greek culture, it seems perfectly rational that they would both want to incorporate something that’s both, “proto-modernist [and] proto-neoclassical”, (90, Dorf).\u00a0 Fusing both ancient and modern identities, this not only gives them solid inspiration to draw from, but it legitimized their identities as something evidenced by both past and present.\u00a0 Other aspects such as “clarity” and “simplicity” I believe have more to do with aesthetic choice, as it’s difficult to say that minimalism has any sexual identity.\u00a0 When we listened to Germaine Taileferre’s music, one aspect I found particularly troublesome was the belief that her music was “beautiful” and therefore, as Rosenfeld called it, “feminine” (Heel, 80).\u00a0 Bach wrote some of the most beautiful harmonies that forever changed the way we would approach western harmonization, and I highly doubt anyone would refer to it as “feminine” (i.e. why not just call it “beautiful” and leave it at that?)\u00a0 Regardless, I think Dorf’s article – while occasionally stretching and making associations that I don’t think can be exclusively chalked up to queer identity, made a solid argument rooted in historical exploration.<\/p>\n

I had a more difficult time with Moore’s article, however, as I believe most people struggle ascribing a concrete definition to “camp”.\u00a0 If anything, the most consistent definition I can find is simply “ironic”\u00a0 Again, I’m sorry I can’t link back to an article, but in my class on “America’s hit parade”, we read an article explaining the origin of camp, which opted more for class identity rather than sexual identity.\u00a0 In it, they argued that camp – at its core – is a retrospective observation of art made by the upper class depicting what they think life is like for the lower class, but made for<\/em> the lower class.\u00a0 Having started out as describing black minstrelsy shows, it soon became something that, in the 80’s meant “ironic”, but now means “ironically bad” (just look at the rise of “dad shoes” and ugly sweater contests, you’ll see my point).\u00a0 In the case of Poulenc, I would liken his description of camp to things like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” or the entire concept of the band “Queen”.\u00a0 Everyone pretty much knew that “TRHPS” was sincerely homoerotic, but they could always argue it was just a movie, in the same way that Freddie Mercury could say they were just making music and having fun – after all, Freddie only explicitly revealed that he was gay the day before he died.\u00a0 In the case of Poulenc, Moore writes that, “Such an alibi constitutes a legitimate defense that deflects speculation about whether an individual has perpetrated a crime or when viewed within the context of artistic creativity and homophobic oppression, whether a work has been conceived by a queer artist or to express a subjective point of view based on queer experience,” (302, Moore).<\/p>\n

I find it difficult to believe all of this was campy when reading some interpretations of what Poulenc had to say of expressing himself.\u00a0 Moore quotes Milfred Mellers, who pointed out that, “…Aubade<\/em> is clearly the work of a divided and unhappy individual whose inner conflicts are tearing him apart,” (322).\u00a0 Moore mentioned earlier in the article that camp is really designed so that heterosexual audience members won’t really understand what’s going on (305), but this previous quote kind of goes against that.\u00a0 Music is visceral, and people can generally tell if something is supposed to make them feel good or bad.\u00a0 If it’s an ironic character who expresses sincere emotion, I’m of the opinion it distances them from that ironic disposition which, in turn, removes them from the field of “camp”.<\/p>\n

However, I felt that Moore’s general definition worked really well, and I can completely understand where he was coming from in expounding upon Poulenc’s vision of “campy distance”.\u00a0 I felt that Moore had many solid thoughts on the matter that were backed up by serious scholarly research, I just think describing “camp” is tricky, and there’s never going to be a singular definition – even the one ascribed to Poulenc’s vision was inconsistent as there are moments of sincerity that drive home the point that an individual truly feels such conflicting emotions, regardless of an obfuscated identity or not.<\/p>\n