Reading the Multimedia Archive Surrounding Montreal’s Post-War LGBTQ Bars: A Genealogical Return to Madame Arthur andIl était une fois dans l’Est

What is it about?

This essay returns to two key events of 1974 in Montréal gay, lesbian and transsexual history, a raid on the lesbian bar Madame Arthur and the release of André Brassard's film "Il était une fois dans l'est" (based on influential plays by Michel Tremblay). The article reads different types of archival evidence such as fictional and first-person written accounts, photographs and oral histories. In a context where traditional lgbtq archives co-exist with multimedia references to local histories, I reflect on how the use of diverse media platforms and types of discourse shape how we remember, understand and forget past lgbtq events and experiences in Montréal.

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Why is it important?

This essay contributes to a growing body of literature on lgbtq archives and public culture. It is one of the first essays to carefully re-read foundational lesbian, gay and transgender oral histories of Montréal (Chamberland, Higgins a Namaste) against more recent poststructuralist debates around how archives fuel selective processes of memorializing and forgetting. Also important here is a meditation on how genealogical historiography and readings of non-traditional forms of "evidence" (drawings, photographs, novels) can be used to enter in dialogue with existing accounts of lgbtq liberation. Finally, reading across lesbian, gay and transsexual archives, I bring into relief how changing codes of gender intersect with sexuality.

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