Monique Wittig reconsidered
Keywords:
gender, sexuality, gays politics, post-colonial studies, feminism, whitenessAbstract
«Monique Wittig Reconsidered» An accomplished and influential figure in feminism, experimental writing, and social theory since the 1960s, Monique Wittig has played a crucial role in shaping reflection on the politics of gender and sexuality, both in Europe and in North America. In the wake of her death in January 2003, it seems fitting to undertake a broad examination the varied cultural-political contexts in which her provocative work has been read from the 1970s through the 1990s, and to consider the changes in those readings in relation to disciplinary shifts that have resulted in the near demise of French literature and theory as intellectual concerns of U.S. scholars. My basic argument is that most readings, as well as Wittig’s own theoretical writings, ignore or explicitly disavow many elements in her literary texts that, especially in the late 1960s, link white first-world feminism to questions of racial and sexual subordination worldwide, as well as to third-world liberation movements —questions that, today, come to the fore once again, in new ways, given the recent concern with «minority» writing and transnational flows of capital, culture, an human beings.
Downloads
References
ADNAN, Etel, 1977: Sitt Marie Rose. Paris, Des femmes.
CROWDER, Diane Griffin, 1983: «Amazons and Mothers? Monique Wittig, Hélène Cixous, and Theories of Women’s Writing». Contemporary Literature, vol. 2, pp. 117-44.
DE LAURETIS, Teresa, 1990: «Eccentric Subjects: Feminist Theory and Historical Consciousness».Feminist Studies, vol. 1, pp. 115-50.
ENGELBRECHT, Penelope, 1990: «‘Lifting Belly is a Language’: The Postmodern Lesbian Subject».Feminist Studies, vol. 1, pp. 85-114.
ENGELS, Friedrich, 1972: The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. New York, International Publishers.
FOUCAULT, Michel, 1980: The History of Sexuality, Volume I, An Introduction. trans. Robert Hurley,New York, Vintage.
GUILLAUMIN, Colette, 1977: «Race et nature: Système des marques, idée de groupe naturel et rapportssociaux». Pluriel, vol. 11. Translated as «Race and Nature: The System of Marks, the Ideaof a Natural Group and Social Relationships». Feminist Issues, vol. 2.
GILMORE, Leigh, 1997: «An Anatomy of Absence: Written on the Body, The Lesbian Body, and Auto-biography without Names», in Thomas FOSTER, Carol SIEGEL, and Ellen E. BERRY (eds.),The Gay 90s: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Formations in Queer Studies, New York,New York UP, 1997, pp. 224-51.
HARAWAY, Donna, 1985: «A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism inthe 1980s». Socialist Review, vol. 15, pp. 65-107.
HAYES, Jarrod, 2000: Queer Nations:Sexual Subversions of National Identity in Maghrebian Literaturein French. Chicago, U Chicago P.
HENNESSY, Rosemary, 1993: «Queer Theory: A Review of the differences Special Issue and Wittig’s The Straight Mind». Signs, vol. Summer, pp. 964-73.
HIGGINS, Lynn, 1996: New Novel, New Politics, New Wave: Fiction and the Representation of History inPostwar France. Lincoln, U Nebraska P.
MARKS, Elaine, 1979: «Lesbian Intertextuality», in George Stambolian and Elaine Marks (eds.),Homosexualities and French Literature, Ithaca, Cornell UP, pp. 353-77.
MARKS, Elaine and Isabel DE COURTIVRON (eds.), 1980: New French Feminisms:An Anthology. Amherst,U Massachussetts P.
MARTIN, Biddy and Chandra Talpade MOHANTY, 1986: «Feminist Politics: What’s «Home» Got toDo with It?», in Teresa DE LAURETIS (ed.), Feminist Studies/Critical Studies, Bloomington,Indiana UP.
ROOF, Judith, 1994: «Lesbians and Lyotard: Legitimation and the Politics of the Name», in LauraDoan (ed.), The Lesbian Postmodern. New York, Columbia UP, pp. 47-66.
RUBIN, Gayle, 1994: «Sexual Traffic» (Interview with Judith Butler). Differences, vol. 2/3, pp. 62-99.
SCHWARZ-BART, André, 1972: La Mulâtresse Solitude. Paris, Editions du Seuil.
SCHWARZ-BART, André and Simone. SCHWARZ-BART, 1967: Un Plat de porc aux bananes vertes. Paris,Editions du Seuil.
SCHWARZ-BART, Simone, 1972: Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle. Paris, Editions du Seuil.
SENGHOR, Léopold Sédar (ed.), 1948: Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
SHAKTINI, Namascar, 1982: «Displacing the Phallic Subject: Wittig’s Lesbian Writing». Signs, vol. 1,pp. 29-45.
SIMON, Claude, 1964: «Pour Monique Wittig». L’Express, vol. 702 (30 Nov.- 6 Dec.), pp. 69-71.
WENZEL, Hélène Vivienne, 1981: «The Text as Body/Politics: An Appreciation of Monique Wittig’s Writings in Context». Feminist Studies, vol. 2, pp. 264-87.
WINTERSON, Jeanette, 1991: Written on the Body. London, Jonathan Cape.
WITTIG, Monique, 1964: L’Opoponax, Paris, Editions de Minuit.
—— 1969: Les Guérillères. Paris, Editions de Minuit.
—— 1973: Le Corps lesbian. Paris, Editions de Minuit.
WITTIG, Monique and Sande ZEIG, 1976: Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes. Paris, Grasset.
WITTIG, Monique, 1985: Virgile, non. Paris, Editions de Minuit.
—— 1992: «One Is Not Born a Woman», in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, BeaconPress.
—— 1992: «The Straight Mind», in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, Beacon Press.
—— 1992: «The Trojan Horse», in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, Beacon Press.
—— 1992: «The Mark of Gender», in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, Beacon Press.
—— 1992: «Preface», in The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Boston, Beacon Press.
WOODHULL, Winifred, 1993: Transfigurations of the Maghreb:Feminism, Decolonization, and Litera-tures.Minneapolis, U Minnesota P.
—— 2000: «Mohammed Dib and the French Question». Yale French Studies, vol. 98, pp. 66-78.
ZERILLI, Linda, 1990: «The Trojan Horse of Universalism: Language as a «War Machine» in theWritings of Monique Wittig». Social Text, vol. 25/26, pp. 146-70.11 MIS Winifred Woodhull.pmd27/10/2006, 9:51166
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Articles are the property of their respective authors, who freely grant the journal the right of first publication.
