Uniform manhood: Napoleonic friendship and military literature in France from Balzac, Stendhal, and Hugo, to Zola and Proust

Uniform manhood is a study of masculine friendship in French military literature from Napoleon to the First World War. Inspired by Foucault's intended military history, the dissertation argues that the emergence of modern gay male identity in early twentieth-century France may be linked to the transformation of social relations among French soldiers during the nineteenth century, from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars to the Franco-Prussian and First World Wars. With nineteenth-century reforms in conscription and recruitment, French male citizens were exposed to the homosociality of an institution whose goal was to turn every man into a uniform(ed) soldier. For many soldiers, the hardships of combat led to intimate friendships, based on mutual comfort and affection. For some, the homosociality of military life led to life-long relationships and intense feelings of love, commitment, and homoerotic desire.;From Charlemagne to Charles de Gaulle, the French historical and literary traditions are rich in examples of male military intimacy. This dissertation focuses specifically on that period during the nineteenth century when radical reforms in the French military led to new social relations among men and produced powerful narrative portraits of military friendship: primarily in the historical record of Napoleon's friendships with Marechal Lannes, General Duroc, and General Junot; in the military nonfiction memoirs of General Marbot, Captain Coignet, and Sergeant Bourgogne; and in the military fiction of Balzac, Stendhal, Hugo, and Zola.;In Balzac's Scenes de la vie militaire (1829--1850), Stendhal's La Chartreuse de Parme (1839), Hugo's Les Miserables (1862), and Zola's La Debâcle (1892), soldiers express affection for their bunkmates, compassion for their wounded comrades, and devotion to their fellow veterans. These texts participate in three important literary traditions. First, they echo an ancient and medieval tradition of warrior lovers stretching back to the Iliad and the Chanson de Roland. Second, they reflect an entire genre of nineteenth-century military fiction from Rimbaud's "Dormeur du val" (1870) to Daudet's Contes du lundi (1873), and Maupassant's Boule de suif (1880). Third, they presage the emergence of masculine affections and homoerotic desire in the trenches of the First World War, from Barbusse's Le Feu (1916) to Proust's Le Temps retrouve (1927). Balzac, Stendhal, Hugo, and Zola thus create a bridge between the epic devotion of ancient and medieval warriors, the transformation of Revolutionary fraternite into Napoleonic friendship during the First and Second Empires, and the evolution of homosexual military modernity during the Third Republic and the First World War.