Charles Delalé: Republicans, Celibacy and the Performance of Masculinity

Abstract

From the outset, the investigation into the murder of Gaston Foveaux was decisively shaped by assumptions about true masculinity and its performance. The investigating magistrate, Charles Delalé, embodied a republican conception of masculinity. In his eyes, men bound to a vow of chastity appeared inherently suspicious. But as he sought to find a killer among a group of teaching brothers, Delalé resorted to a brutal judicial technique, the confrontation. When, during this ordeal, Frère Flamidien failed to perform in a manner deemed masculine by those present, he became the sole object of suspicion.