Cyclisme et modèle(s) de virilité dans la littérature française (1903-1939): l'exemple de la course des Six Jours et du Tour de France
Résumé
This article analyzes the models of masculinity evident in the representationof cycling in France from 1903 to 1939. In France, the interwar yearswere a period in which sporting practices were democratized and gendernorms shifted. Sports writing, present in numerous publications at the time,recognized sporting arenas (including velodromes and the roads of theTour de France) as sites for the molding of new models of virility. Morespecifically, literary evocations of cycling dwelled on those events consideredto constitute notable feats and showcase "surhommes": the Tour deFrance (1903) and the Paris Six-Day race (1913) were the source of abundantliterary production, exemplified by Albert Londres' Tour de France, tour desouffrance (1924), André Reuze's Tour de souffrance (1925), and AlphonseBaugé's Vérités, anecdotes et réflexions sur les courses cyclistes et sur lescoureurs (1925). Through a literary study of essentially popular novels, thethemes of masculinity in the world of cycling are highlighted: models ofphysicality and performance are constructed around the values ofsuffering, technical proficiency, speed, and endurance, which are seen toconstitute virility on both the track and the road. However, it is also necessaryto investigate the specificities of both road and track cycling, which, asdistinct practices, each present nuanced models of masculinity.