Monique Wittig
1935 - 2003

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The Lesbian Body by Monique Wittig, David LeVay (Translator), Margaret Crosland (Designer)

This book is not an easy read, either content-wise or stylistically, but it is one of the most satisfying books I have read. Monique Witting is a radical feminist who believes that langugae itself must be reinvented to better serve the experience of women, and this book is her attempt to do so. She describes in painful, clinical detail the bonding of two women lovers---their very viscera entwining and disentangling as the relationship ebbs and flows. It is remarkable how we all use phrases like "we were totally bonded" without thinking--this book examines such concepts on a literal(and often unpleasant) level. It is difficult to find, but worth getting for anyone interested in extremely radical notions of language and also in truly deep exploration of the extremities of love. -- Cheryl Johnston

Fragments of Desire: Sapphic Fictions in Works by H.D., Judy Grahn, and Monique Wittig by Johanna Dehler

Tracing the influence of Sappho's fragmented literary legacy on three 20th-century women writers - H.D., Judy Grahn, and Monique Wittig - this book discusses 'Sapphic fiction' as a genre that emerged throughout the 20th century. H.D., Grahn, and Wittig represent three movements that have shaped the approach to the sexual subject and her desires: modernism, cultural feminism, and poststructuralism respectively. H.D. responds to Sappho with an imagistic style that resembles Sappho's terse and clipped lines. Grahn recreates the idea of Lesbos as a model for a women-centered society. Wittig, writing from a poststructuralist background, alludes to Sappho in her fierce critique of myth and language. This study draws on recent debates about the history of sexuality, the body, and the construction of the self, and is meant as a contribution to the ongoing debate on how gender is constructed in modernist and postmodernist discourse.

Obituary, January 6, 2003

Monique Wittig, French novelist, poet and social theorist, born July 13, 1935 in Alsace, France, died January 3, 2003 in Tucson, Arizona. Wittig's first novel, The Opoponax (1964), brought her major critical acclaim and the coveted Prix Medicis. As a founding leader in the French feminist movement, Wittig's literary and theoretical works were recognized as essential contributions to feminist thought in Europe and the U.S. and to the emerging movement for lesbian and gay rights. After moving to the U.S. in the mid-1970s, Wittig held a number of university teaching positions, and was currently a professor in Women's Studies and French at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Wittig's work has had a fundamental impact upon feminist theory and lesbian and gay theory worldwide. Her novels, including Les Guérillères (1969), The Lesbian Body (1973), Lesbian Peoples: Materials for a Dictionary (co-authored with Sande Zeig, 1975), and Virgile, non (1984, translated as Across the Acheron in 1987) combine a sensitivity to the nuances of language and style with a powerful illustration of her philosophy of lesbian materialism, a theoretical position she set forth in a series of essays collected in The Straight Mind (1992), a term she coined. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages, including German, Dutch, Finish, Japanese, and Spanish. Her collaboration with Zeig resulted in the imaginative staging of her play The Constant Journey (1985) in the U.S. and in Paris, and most recently a feature film based on her short story, The Girl (2001), directed by Sande Zeig.

Wittig is survived by her partner, Sande Zeig, mother, Maria Wittig, sister, Gilberte Wittig, and niece, Dominique Samson.

Monique Wittig:  The Lesbian Body

By Felice Aull, Ph.D., New York University

Excerpt:

Wittig re-imagines the act of love, the boundaries of the body, and masculine language. The lovers literally take apart each other's bodies as an act of love: "I see your bones covered with flesh the iliacs the kneecaps the shoulders. I remove the muscles . . . I take each one between my fingers the long muscles the round muscles the short muscles . . . . " 

Monique Wittig:  The Myth of Woman

By Mitterbacher Doris

Excerpt:

In her essays "The Category of Sex" and "One Is Not Born a Woman" Monique Wittig questions the concept of male/female categories. The difference of sex is stressed in our society and said to be "natural" , that is, preexisting and therefore outside of society. This concept prevents people from questioning those categories. But by not questioning this "natural" difference women give away the chance to rebel against a society where they have to do 3/4 of public and private work and where they have to surrender to male authority. In a heterosexual society they have to accept that they are reduced from individuals to their sex. They have to be sexually available all the time, their bodies have to be visible and so they have to refrain a smiling face. By the marriage contract they have been given to a husband who has the right to demand unpaid work (housework, raising of children) and other obligations (cohabitation, forced coitus,...)...

Offers a highlighted biographical chronology, a series of quotes including her noted, "lesbians are not women," and a list of sources.

Names Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Authors Index | Scholars Index |