Monique Wittig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monique Wittig (born July 13, 1935 in Dannemarie , France , † January 3, 2003 in Tucson , Arizona ) was a French writer and feminist theorist. She was particularly interested in overcoming gender . In 1964 her first novel (L'opoponax) and her second novel (Les Guerillères) ( Eng . The Balkis Conspiracy ) appeared in 1969.

Life

Monique Wittig was born in Alsace. She was one of the founders of the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF). On August 26, 1970, accompanied by numerous other women, she laid flowers at the Arc de Triomphe to honor the wife of the unknown soldier. This was considered to be the first significant event in modern French feminism.

In 1971 she participated in Gouines rouges ( Red Lesbians ), the first lesbian group in Paris. She was also involved in the group Femmes Révolutionnaires ( Revolutionary Women ). In 1976 she left Paris and went to the USA , where she taught at numerous universities. She was Professor of French and Women Studies at the University of Arizona at Tucson. In 2003 Wittig died of a heart attack.

Theories

Monique Wittig called herself a "radical lesbian," referring to her political and sexual orientation . This sensitivity can be found in her books, in which she exclusively depicts women. To avoid any confusion, she stated:

For me there is no such thing as women's literature. In literature I do not differentiate between women and men. Either someone is a writer or they are not. This is a spiritual space in which gender is not decisive. There must be room for freedom. The language allows this. It's about developing an idea of ​​the neutral that escapes sexuality.

As a theorist of materialist feminism, she stigmatizes the political myth of "the woman" and accuses heterosexuality of being a political regime and the basis of a social contract that lesbians reject:

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

According to Wittig, the “woman” category only exists in relation to the “man” category, and “women” would cease to be “women” without any relation to “men”. Through these criticisms, Wittig took a strong universalist position. The increasing importance of the individual and the liberation of desire make the abolition of gender categories necessary.

Works

  • 1964: L'Opoponax ( prix Médicis ), German Opoponax . Rowohlt, Reinbek b. Hamburg, 1966
  • 1969: Les Guérillères , German The Balkis Conspiracy . Women's offensive, Munich 1980
  • 1973: Corps Lesbien , Eng . Out of Your Ten Thousand Eyes, Sappho . Amazonen-Frauenverlag, Berlin 1977 and 1984
  • 1976: Le Brouillon d'un Dictionnaire des Amantes . (with Sande Zeig , her partner), German Lesbian peoples: a dictionary . Women's offensive, Munich 1983
  • 1985: Virgile, non
  • 1992: La pensée straight , engl. The straight mind . Beacon Press, 1992 - Essays
  • 1999: Paris-la-Politique
  • The film The Girl by Sande Zeig is based on a short story by Wittig.

Awards

literature

  • Sarah Cooper: Relating to queer theory: rereading sexual self-definition with Irigaray, Kristeva, Wittig and Cixous . Lang Verlag, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt a. M., New York, Oxford, Vienna, 2000.
  • Namascar Shaktini (Ed.): On Monique Wittig. Theoretical, Political and Literary Essays . University of Illinois Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0252072314 .
  • Vojin Saša Vukadinović : A book for everyone and nobody. Monique Wittig's Les Guérillères as a 'great refusal' in epic form. In: Benedikt Wolf (ed.), SexLit. New critical readings on sexuality and literature , Berlin 2019, pp. 170–201, ISBN 978-3-89656-282-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wittig, Monique
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and feminist theorist
DATE OF BIRTH July 13, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Dannemarie , France
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 2003
Place of death Tucson , Arizona