Erfolg in Serie

TALK ABOUT: QUEER AS FOLK

¹ Referent: Markus Alexander Lenz (UdS), Eintritt frei!

Vortrag mit Ausschnitten zu der Serie QUEER AS FOLK in englischer Sprache.

Few television dramas captured the emergence of a more outspoken queer identity as vividly as Queer as Folk. The British original (1999–2000), set in Manchester, and its American adaptation (2000–2005), set in Pittsburgh, placed gay desire, friendship and everyday life at the centre of the screen with unusual candour. Both versions are cultural time capsules of the anglophone world in the 1990s and early 2000s, reflecting growing queer visibility and self-confidence amid homophobia, HIV/AIDS and struggles for equality. Through nightlife, intimacy and chosen families, they portrayed queer people claiming the freedom to define their own lives.Today, the series serves as a narrative gauge of shifting identity politics. Its portrayals of sexuality, gender and belonging make the assumptions and tensions of the recent past tangible to a present that considers itself more sensitive and inclusive. Revisiting Queer as Folk reveals change as an uneven movement between progress and regression—and invites us to question both the limitations of earlier liberation narratives and the certainties of our own moment.

Markus Alexander Lenz (Saarland University) studied in Passau and Milan. After the completion of his dissertation on anthropological discourses in 19th century Italian philology, he worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Romance Literature at the University of Potsdam. Since April 2024, he represents the Chair of Romance and General Literature and Civilization at Saarland University. His publications and research focus on the history of Italian and French philology (particularly in the 19th century), French-speaking Vietnamese literature and contemporary French literature from the point of view of the sociology of literature. Other research focuses on Alexander von Humboldt's work, his American travel diaries and Humboldt's relationship with French literature. His most recent monograph, devoted to narratives of violence in contemporary French literature from 2010 to 2020, was published in 2022. It is entitled Die verletzte Republik. Erzählte Gewalt in der französischen Gegenwartsliteratur (2010-2020). Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter 2022.