Monique Wittig

Monique Wittig
Wittig in 1964
Born	July 13, 1935(1935-07-13) Dannemarie, Haut-Rhin, France
Died	January 3, 2003(2003-01-03) (aged 67) Tucson, Arizona, United States
Occupation	author and feminist theorist
Nationality	French

Monique Wittig (July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) was a French author and feminist theorist who wrote about overcoming socially enforced gender roles and who coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". She published her first novel, L'Opoponax, in 1964 . Her second novel, Les Guérillères (1969), was a landmark in lesbian feminism.^{[citation needed]}

Biography

Monique Wittig was born in 1935 in Dannemarie in Haut-Rhin, France. In 1950 she moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. In 1964 she published her first novel, L'Opoponax which won her immediate attention in France. After being translated into English, Wittig achieved international recognition. She was one of the founders of the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (MLF) (Women's Liberation Movement). In 1969, she published what is arguably her most influential work, Les Guerilleres, which is today considered a revolutionary and controversial source for feminist and lesbian thinkers around the world. Its publication is also considered to be the founding event of French feminism.

Wittig earned her Ph.D. from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, after completing a thesis named "Le Chantier littéraire" Wittig was a central figure in lesbian and feminist movements in France. In 1971, she was a founding member of the Gouines rouges ("Red dykes"), the first lesbian group in Paris. She was also involved in the Féministes Révolutionnaires ("Revolutionary feminists"), a radical feminist group. She published various other works, some of which include the 1973 Le Corps lesbien (or The Lesbian Body) and the 1976 Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes (or Lesbian Peoples: Materical For A Dictionary), which her partner, Sande Zeig, coauthored.

In 1976, Wittig and Zeig moved to the United States where Wittig focused on producing work of gender theory. Her works, ranging from the philosophical essay The Straight Mind to parables like Les Tchiches et les Tchouches, explored the interconnectedness and intersection of lesbianism, feminism, and literary form. With various editorial positions both in France and in the United States, Wittig's works became internationally recognized and were commonly published in both French and English. She continued to work as a visiting professor in various universities across the nation, including Vassar College and the University of Arizona in Tucson. She taught a course in Materialist Thought through Women's Studies programs, wherein her students were immersed in the process of correcting the American translation of The Lesbian Body. She died unexpectedly of a heart attack on January 3, 2003.

The Straight Mind

While Wittig depicted only women in her literature, she abhorred the idea that she was a "women's writer" She stated: Monique Wittig called herself a "Radical lesbian."

"There is no such thing as women literature for me, that does not exist. In literature, I do not separate women and men. One is a writer, or one is not. This is a mental space where sex is not determining. One has to have some space for freedom. Language allows this. This is about building an idea of the neutral which could escape sexuality".

Moreover, for Wittig, the category "woman" exists only through its relation to the category "man," and the "women" without relation to "men" would cease to exist. She advocated a strong Universalist position, saying that the expression of one's individuality and the liberation of desire require the abolition of gender categories.

Wittig identified herself as a Radical lesbian. In her work The Straight Mind, she argued that lesbians are not women because to be a lesbian is to step outside of the heterosexual norm of women, as defined by men for men's ends.

"...and it would be incorrect to say that lesbians associate, make love, live with women, for 'woman' has meaning only in heterosexual systems of thought and heterosexual economic systems. Lesbians are not women" (1978).

She called heterosexuality a political regime and outlined the basis for a social contract which lesbians refuse.

Wittig also developed a critical view of Marxism which obstructed feminist struggle, but also of feminism itself which does not question the heterosexual dogma.

A theorist of material feminism, she stigmatised the myth of "the woman", called heterosexuality a political regime, and outlined the basis for a social contract which lesbians refuse.

Bibliography

• 1964, L’Opoponax (prix Médicis)
• 1969, Les Guérillères
• 1973, Le Corps Lesbien (tr. The Lesbian Body)
• 1976, Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes, (with Sande Zeig) (tr. Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary)
• 1985, Virgile, non (tr. Across the Acheron)
• 1992, The Straight Mind and Other Essays (tr. La pensée straight)
• 1999, Paris-la-Politique

• The film The Girl by Sande Zeig, Wittig's partner and collaborator, is made out of her first English novel.

See also

• Feminism in France
• Amazones d'Hier, Lesbiennes d'Aujourd'hui

External links

• Monique Wittig Biography and Quotes
• Monique Wittig
• Monique Wittig – Biography