Proust in the Tearoom Author(s): Jarrod Hayes Source: PMLA, Vol. 110, No. 5 (Oct., 1995), pp. 992-1005 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/463025 . Accessed: 05/07/2011 17:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mla. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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JarrodHayes

Proust

in

the

JARROD HAYES is finishing his dissertation, "Something Queer about the Nation: Sexual Subversions of National

Tearoom

tasse n.f ... Urinoirpublic.... On dit parfois tasse a the. Syn.: theiere.... the n.m.... Prendre le the, copuler notammententre homosexuels.... theiere n.f ... Urinoirpublic (frequentepar les homosexuels). Colin and Mevel (613, 618)

Identity in Maghrebian Literature of French Expression," at the Graduate Center,City Universityof New York.He teaches Frenchat QueensboroughCommunity College, NY His recent publicationsinclude"Approches de l'homosexualite et de l'homoerotisme chez Boudjedra, Mammeriet Sebbar"(Prdsence francophone, 1993) and "Madonna in Living Color: Race, Color, and Sexuality in Music Videos"(FoundObject, 1992).

TH

IS MUCH taking of tea in A la recherche du temps the description of Combray, if not the whole Indeed, perdu. novel, is said to result from taking tea with a madeleine. The French expressions in which tea serves as a metaphor or euphemism for homosex in public rest rooms1 assume particular significance when the narrator of La recherche describes the baron de Charlus, Proust's most notorious homosexual, engaging in tearoom sex: ERE

Or notre maitre d'hotel, qui croyait que le mot ?pissotiere> .... .tait >,n'entendit jamais dans toute sa vie une seule personne dire ,bien que tres souvent on pronon9atainsi devant lui.... Constamment le maitred'h6tel disait: