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The Straight Mind Spiral-Bound | 1992-02-03

Monique Wittig

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These political, philosophical, and literary essays mark the first collection of theoretical writing from the acclaimed novelist and French feminist writer Monique Wittig.

"Among the most provocative and compelling feminist political visions since The Second Sex. These essays represent the radical extension of de Beauvoir's theory, its unexpected lesbian future. Wittig's theoretical insights are both precise and far-reaching, and her theoretical style is bold, incisive, even shattering."
--Judith Butler, Johns Hopkins University
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 132 pages
ISBN-10: 0807079170
Item Weight: 0.4 lbs
Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.4 inches
"Wittig ( The Lesbian Body ) is a key figure in French feminism, perhaps the foremost theorist of a profoundly radical lesbianism. Half of the nine essays in this brief collection deal directly with the politics of gender, a battlefield on which Wittig has staked out a nearly unique position: "There is no sex. There is but sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses.''...As a result, these ostensibly literary essays offer the most cogent statement of her political beliefs and, consequently, the most satisfying reading."
--Publishers Weekly

"Wittig most brilliantly analyzes certain transformations in the textures and structures of literary language. The wonderful image of the role of literature as a Trojan horse is a gem of clarity and wit."
--Germaine Brée

"At last it will be possible to have easy access to these provocative and important essays."
--Elaine Marks, University of Wisconsin, editor of New French Feminisms
Monique Wittig (1935-2003) was a French-born feminist theorist and the author of L'Opoponax and Les Guérillères. Her writing focused on the performativity of gender, sexuality, and lesbian feminism. She studied at the Sorbonne and The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), and later taught at such institutions as Vassar College and University of California--Berkeley.