Literary Workshop

Monique Wittig was a feminist, activist and one of the most brilliant authors of her generation. A provocative thinker, she famously declared that lesbians are not women, and introduced women into a Marxist framework by treating women as a class. Wittig is the author of The Straight Mind, Les Guérillères, and The Lesbian Body.

• FOREWORD by Sande ZeigNOTE ON THE TRANSLATION by Ann JeffersonTHE LITERARY WORKSHOPINTRODUCTIONProposition 1On The Heterogeneity and the Instability of the Components PresentProposition 2On the Materiality of LanguageProposition 3On the Effect of Abstract Philosophical Categories on Social RealityProposition 4On the Various Effects of Physical LanguageTHE LITERARY WORKSHOPTHE SOCIAL CONTRACTPRE-EXISTING FORMS: LITERATUREWORK ON LANGUAGE1.From Conventional Words to Raw Words2.Material Words3.SignifiedsPHILOSOPHICAL CATEGORIES: THE EXAMPLE OF GENDERCONCLUSIONTHE MAKING OF WITTIG'S WORKSHOP by Christine Planté

Wittig became a celebrity in the American women's movement. Her collection of essays, The Straight Mind (1992), is witty, imaginative and, as ever, experimental. It is her imaginative use of style-as-politics that will be her lasting legacy, influencing writers as diverse as Kathy Acker and Jeanette Winterson.