« Les sinistres seuils » : Sexualité et paranoïa dans la littérature templière

This paper aims to study one ramification of the Knights Templar modern mythology in which paranoid imagination intersects with the most sophisticated BDSM rituals. Since its dissolution at the beginning of the 14th century, the Order of the Temple has reappeared, through the ages, notably to fuel the development of conspiracy theories. In this monstrous bibliography, the work of American researcher Gershon Legman stands out by taking up the sexual accusations made against the order by the royal authorities during its famous trial in 1307. His focus on abjection points to the Templars as the true ancestors of the sexual heretics of the 20th and 21st centuries. As a proto-queer intellectual figure, Legman will inspire our comparative reading of two fictional scenes of Templar secret initiation. The comparison invites us to distance ourselves from traditional literary hierarchies. It also highlights the need of a reparative reading, as a complement to paranoid decipherment, in order to think not only of sexual violence but also of the resurgence of trauma within the queer counter-canon. From such a cultural anamnesis, we believe that a joyful literary exploration of the sexual byways becomes possible again.