Myth, memory and Maison close: representing sex work on screen

ABSTRACT

The maison close [brothel] in French history and culture, particularly during the nineteenth century because of its representation in art and literature, could be argued to be a lieu de mémoire [site of memory]. In light of the gaps in material that gives direct voice to women in sex work, especially during this period, the maison close could equally be termed a lieu d’oubli [site of forgetting]. In contemporary popular culture, the brothel has become a popular setting for fiction, as with the Canal+ series Maison close (2010, 2013), set in 1870s Paris. The series reflects a fascination with sex work in popular culture, as well as offering a commentary on the legal standing of sex work between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. This paper interrogates the extent to which Maison close attempts to offer alternative or more nuanced visions of history than simply categorising sex workers as victim/criminal/femme fatale, informed by abolitionist debates during its production and emerging critiques of the Nordic Model of sex work. It also analyses how the series provides an alternative vision for sex workers, and workers more generally, that moves from exploitation to collective action and attempts to increase their agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Nineteenth-century brothels
• Third Republic Paris
• television series
• historical fiction
• lieu de mémoire

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term lorette refers to a demimondaine, sex worker or kept woman, particularly during the Second Empire. It derives from the neighbourhood in Paris where many women lived in apartments financed by their partners or clients, around the church of Notre Dame de Lorette in the ninth arrondissement.

2. Marie-Jeanne is shown in flashbacks but uncredited.

3. ‘objet culturel galvaudé.’

4. ‘mémoire reconquise.’

5. Spotify – Maison Close (Bande originale de la série).

6. ‘nous faisons tout – sauf l’amour.’

7. ‘Les hommes rêvent d’y entrer. Les femmes se battent pour en sortir.’

8. ‘Le bordel défie l’ordre.’

9. CANAL+ MAISON CLOSE le bordel défie l’ordre (2013) on Behance.

10. In 2010, Zahia Dehar, a sex worker, was arrested in a raid and later discovered to have been working while underage. Several French national football team members were identified as clients, and the subsequent legal proceedings against various defendants included indictments for solicitation of an underage sex worker and for pimping.

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Will Visconti

Will Visconti is Coordinator of the Italian major at the University of Technology, Sydney. His first book, Beyond the Moulin Rouge: The Life and Legacy of La Goulue (University of Virginia Press), was published in 2022. He has forthcoming publications with Tampere University Press, and as part of the Routledge History of Paris Since 1789.