Contemporary French Civilization

From romantic drama to materialist pageant: sex, abuse, and the Church in Michel Marc Bouchard’s Les Feluettes and La Divine illusion

Contemporary French Civilization (2018), 43, (3-4), 391–402.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2018.21
Language
English
Pages
12

Abstract

This article examines a shift in the critique of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec on matters of sex by focusing on two plays by Michel Marc Bouchard. In Les Feluettes (1987), a hypocritical Church replete with homoerotic imagery is held morally responsible for the monstrous consequences of instilling sexual shame and denial among the adolescent boys in its charge. Lives are ruined and even obliterated in the service of social conformism and the perpetuation of clerical authority. In La Divine illusion (2015), the critique of the Church shifts to the abuse of adolescent boys by clergy and the institutional protection afforded the offenders. The Church does not stand alone in its abusive practices, however; its malfeasance is shown to intersect with, and reinforce, the power dynamics of social class in an economy of scarcity.

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ReferencesPDF

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Author details

Schwartzwald, Robert