Monique Wittig
Monique Wittig was a prominent French writer and feminist born on July 13, 1935, in Dannemarie, Alsace. Her early life was marked by her family's flight from the Nazi annexation, which influenced her perspective and work. Wittig studied in Paris, where she earned her doctorate and began to explore themes of lesbian identity in literature. She gained significant attention with her first novel, *L'Opoponax*, published in 1964, which is notable for its frank portrayal of lesbianism. In 1969, she published *Les Guérillières*, further establishing her reputation as a pioneering voice for women in literature.
Wittig was also a key figure in the feminist movement, co-founding the Mouvement de Libération des femmes (MLF) in 1970. In 1976, she moved to the United States, where she taught French and women's studies, continuing to write in both French and English. Among her notable works is *The Straight Mind, and Other Essays*, published in 1992, which is considered a significant contribution to feminist theory. Wittig passed away on January 3, 2003, in Tucson, Arizona, leaving behind a legacy of advocating for lesbian identity and feminist thought through her diverse body of literary and scholarly work.
Monique Wittig
French novelist, essayist, playwright, and feminist.
- Born: July 13, 1935
- Birthplace: Dannemarie, Alsace, France
- Died: January 3, 2003
- Place of death: Tucson, Arizona
Biography
Monique Wittig was born on July 13, 1935, in the small town of Dannemarie in the French province of Alsace. Her parents were farmers. After the Nazi annexation of Alsace into Germany in 1940, her parents fled to the French province of Franche-Comté.
She undertook her university studies in Paris. She earned her doctorate at Paris’s École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. In 1964, her first novel, with the nonsensical title of L’Opoponax (The Opoponax), attracted a good deal of attention in France because it was one of the first novels to deal overtly with lesbianism. Just two years later, an English translation of this novel appeared in print. In 1969, her second major novel, Les Guérillières (The Guerrillas, 1971) was published by an important Parisian publisher. Once again, her fictional characters were strong women who were not ashamed to express their lesbian identity. In 1970, she helped create the Mouvement de Libération des femmes (MLF), the first formal French feminist movement. She continued to write novels about lesbians.
In 1976, Wittig moved to America with her significant other, Sande Zeig. From 1976 until her death in 2003, Wittig taught French and women’s studies at various American universities. As her command of English improved, she began to write in English as well. The play Le Voyage sans fin (The Constant Journey) that she wrote with Sande Zeig was first performed in 1984 in Vermont.
In 1990, Wittig accepted a position as a tenured professor of French at the University of Arizona, where she taught for the rest of her life. Her collection of essays entitled The Straight Mind, and Other Essays was published in 1992, and this is generally considered to be her most important volume of essays. While she was at the University of Arizona, she organized an international conference in 1996 on the French novelist Nathalie Sarraute. On January 3, 2003, she suffered a fatal heart attack in Tucson, Arizona.
Author Works
Drama:
Le Voyage sans fin, pr. 1984, pb. 1985 (with Zeig; The Constant Journey)
Long Fiction:
L'Opoponax, 1964 (The Opoponax, 1966)
Les Guérillères, 1969 (The Guerrillas, 1971)
Le Corps lesbien, 1973 (The Lesbian Body, 1975)
Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes, 1976 (with Sande Zeig; Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary, 1979)
Virgile, non, 1985 (Across the Acheron, 1987)
Nonfiction:
The Straight Mind, and Other Essays, 1992
Short Fiction:
Paris-la-politique et autres histoires, 1999
Bibliography
Martin, Douglas. "Monique Wittig, 67, Feminist Writer, Dies." The New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/nyregion/monique-wittig-67-feminist-writer-dies.html?mcubz=1. Accessed 27 June 2017. Obituary covering Wittig's life and career.
Martindale, Kym. "Author(iz)ing the Body: Monique Wittig, The Lesbian Body and the Anatomy Texts of Andreas Vesalius." European Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 8, no. 3, 2001, pp. 343–56. Presents a study of Wittig's work The Lesbian Body and the ways in which the novel challenges the traditional and textbook concepts of the male body serving as the standard by which the female body is judged.
Petcu, Carmen. "Wittig on the Semantics of Grammatical Gender." Review of Contemporary Philosophy, vol. 13, 2014, pp. 72–77. An analytical essay that focuses on Wittig's theory regarding the patriarchic construct of sex categories.
Shaktini, Mamascar, editor. On Monique Wittig: Theoretical, Political, and Literary Essays. U of Illinois P, 2005. A collection of essays that analyze Wittig's work from a variety of approaches.
Wiegman, Robyn. "Un-remembering Monique Wittig." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, vol. 13, no. 4, 2007, pp. 505–18. Discusses Wittig's feminist theories and how they should be remembered going forward.