Abstract
Gabrielle Russier’s persecution by the French state and its apparatuses for her love affair with a much younger male pupil, culminating in her suicide in 1969, is a now largely forgotten but still important part of the history of 1968 and its aftermath. The article retraces the affaire and its reproductions (which include a feature film starring Annie Girardot), and considers its implications for questions of power, desire, privacy, policing and the role of the educational institution. Would a new affaire Russier be possible today? How would it be differently treated in Britain or the US, and what questions does this raise about different social and institutional determinants in these countries?
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