French Literature Reviews - 2026
É. Armand, La révolution sexuelle et la camaraderie amoureuse
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
La révolution sexuelle et la camaraderie amoureuse
Emile Armand
Gaetano Manfredonia
Publication date: 26/02/2015 Publisher: Zones Collection: Hors Collection ZONES ISBN: 978-2-35522-023-4 EAN: 9782355220234 Format: ePub Number of pages: 189 p.
An individualist anarchist and fierce defender of sexual freedom, E. Armand embarked in the mid-1930s on a systematic demolition of the morality of his time. Championing free love and affectionate companionship well ahead of his time, he railed against "exclusive love" and the poison of jealousy, whose passionate excesses inevitably lead only to frustration or violence. A friend to all sexual non-conformists and something of a deviant himself at times, Armand rejected the prudishness of the self-righteous. Through the monogamous couple, he targeted the very structure of the family—that "State in miniature" which inherently fosters emotional exclusivity.
A mildly eccentric theorist of the right to pleasure for all, Armand drew all the logical conclusions: against possessiveness in love, one must experiment with plural love within the framework of an egalitarian affectionate companionship.
Opposing the competitive logic that tends to turn the sphere of romantic encounters into a marketplace, he called on readers to form a sort of sexual cooperative where bodies and caresses would be exchanged through generalized barter. This emotional and sexual utopia retains its subversive power undiminished in an era where sexuality is trapped between the commodification of sex and the sacralization of the couple.
Table of contents:
Foreword: E. Armand, an anarchist unlike any other - From the "City of God" to anarchist individualism - From Christian marriage to affectionate companionship - The struggles for a new sexual ethic - Attempts to put the theses on affectionate companionship into practice and their failure - Scope and limitations of Armand's theses - Have Armand's struggles become obsolete?
By way of preface
I / Revolutionary sexualism - 1. Revolutionary sexualism - 2. The fight against jealousy - 3. Response to a survey on the revision of sexual morality - 4. Why does the State hunt down sexual non-conformists? - 5. Christian incoherence regarding sex - 6. Extremes and revolutionary sexualism - 7. My responses to the communist D. Riazanov and Doctor A. Robertson-Prochowsky - 8. Sexual fantasists - 9. Where a practitioner speaks out: The elderly's right to love -
II / Affectionate companionship - 1. What is affectionate companionship? - Affectionate companionship as an alternative sexual value - The association of affectionate companionship viewed from a cooperative perspective - "Loving cooperativism" or "sexual depravity" - In defense of affectionate companionship - 2. Reflections and commentaries on affectionate companionship - 3. Letter from a philosopher - Plural love: open letter to a young comrade - Letter from a philosopher to a comrade who had invited him to a sex party - Plural love: open letter to a young comrade.
E. Armand was a prominent figure within the individualist anarchist movement in France during the early twentieth century. His work is situated within a broader tradition of radical social critique that sought to dismantle traditional moral structures, particularly those governing the family and private life. By challenging the social norms of his era, Armand engaged with long-standing anarchist debates regarding the intersection of individual autonomy and collective ethics. Readers interested in the history of anarchist thought and the evolution of sexual politics in the interwar period may find this collection relevant to their research.
La révolution sexuelle et la camaraderie amoureuse examines the concept of affectionate companionship as an alternative to the traditional monogamous couple. The text addresses the morality of the time, arguing that emotional exclusivity leads to frustration. By proposing a model based on plural love and cooperative exchange, the work explores romantic relationships outside of state-sanctioned structures through a series of essays and responses that promote a sexual ethic rooted in egalitarianism and personal freedom.