When societies choose not to know: Belgium and homosexuality 1870-1965
In his new book "Unwilling To Know", Wannes Dupont shows that Belgium — shaped by religion, institutional indifference, and coded silence — followed a very different trajectory of public attention to male homosexuality until well after World War II.
Since the 1970s, historians have claimed that an insatiable ‘will to know’ has powered the growing concern with male homosexuality across Europe and the West, especially from the late nineteenth century onwards.
In the new book Unwilling To Know, (external link) Wannes Dupont challenges this dominant narrative by demonstrating how, unlike in neighboring France, Germany, and Britain, a mixture of silence and code surrounded homosexuality in Belgium until well after the Second World War.
Whereas a steady stream of monographs on (mostly male) homosexuality appeared across Europe from the fin de siècle onwards, the lack of publishing in Belgium was combined with a marked lack of interest from the police, psychiatrists, and wider society.
Through comparative analyses, and with particular reference to the role of religion, Dupont complicates overly monolithic views of European developments based on a handful of familiar national cases.
In this lecture Dupont will uncover the many cultural, institutional, legal, and religious differences that have shaped the scrutiny of homosexuality in diverging ways.
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Wannes Dupont (external link) is a lecturer in the history of sexuality at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on queer history, reproductive politics, and the intersections of biopolitics and religion. He has previously published articles in journals including the History Workshop Journal and the Journal of the History of Sexuality.
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The event is a collaboration with the research group on Expert knowledge and everyday knowledge, at the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion.
