The Straight Mind: And Other Essays [Paperback]

Monique Wittig (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0807079170 | ISBN-13: 978-0807079171 | Publication Date: February 3, 1992

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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." Drawing on de Beauvoir, Wittig strenuously resists both biological determinism and its twin, essentialism, arguing that sex itself is a social, ergo ideological, construct and that man and woman are not eternal categories. For women, she concludes, lesbianism is the logical escape from patriarchal domination. Wittig's prose is methodical and aggressive, combative and dense. The book's first half, containing the political essays, is a bit repetitive. The author is at her most elegant in the literary essays, which explicate the complex relationship between literary form and ideology. As a result, these ostensibly literary essays offer the most cogent statement of her political beliefs and, consequently, the most satisfying reading.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A celebrated scholar on several continents and best known for Les Gueilleres ( LJ 1/1/72) and The Lesbian Body ( LJ 10/1/75), Wittig's contribution to the French women's movement and feminist and lesbian theory are internationally renowned. This collection of nine previously published essays, seven of which appeared in Feminist Issues , is a selection of her theoretical writings of the past 14 years. The title essay, a revision of a controversial text delivered to the Modern Language Association (MLA) conference in 1978, concludes that "lesbians are not women." In Wittig's own words, the first half of the collection is devoted to "materialist lesbianism" and the second half is about writing, especially how heterosexuality dominates language. A solid candidate for "core" readings in upper-level undergraduate sociology, women's studies, and philosophy courses. Highly recommended.
- Melody Burton, York Univ. Libs., Toronto
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (February 3, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807079170
• ISBN-13: 978-0807079171
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #320,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gem from a brilliant thinker., July 11, 2004

By 

Lee Hall (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Straight Mind: And Other Essays (Paperback)

This book will forever redefine feminism for its readers.

There are two threads: one political, the other literary commentary. Fortunately, Witting pulls the former into the latter. The astute and radical political critique in Wittig's book is uniquely powerful.

Wittig addresses the question of how a movement is comprised of both group energy and individual experience. The theory, legacy, and limits of Marx and Engels are discussed.

Then, drawing on de Beauvoir and other iconoclasts, Wittig addresses our dominator culture in a way that goes directly to its core.

Wittig deals efficiently yet persuasively with the argument over whether nature or culture is responsible for inequality, declaring that "there is no sex." This statement becomes the book's alpha and omega, and the lens through which Wittig shows us history, literature, and the future of activism.

Like whiteness, maleness is a social category that can be renounced. Man (Homo) once meant everybody in the human community -- it was indeed generic, in the unifying sense. Unfortunately, the word has so frequently been used to describe a socially constructed group that expels half of itself in order to oppress it, "man" is now identified with those identified as male.

In the essay "The Category of Sex" Wittig writes:

"The perenniality of the sexes and the perenniality of slaves and masters proceed from the same belief, and, as there are no slaves without masters, there are no women without men. The ideology of sexual difference functions as censorship in our culture by masking, on the grounds of nature, the social opposition between man and women. Masculine/feminine, male/female are the categories which serve to conceal the fact that social differences always belong to an economic, political, ideological order. ...The masters explain and justify the established divisions as a result of natural differences."

I understand that Wittig has recently passed away. If only I had discovered this book a little earlier, so that I could have met the author. That feeling, I suppose, is the sign of a truly good read. "A text by a minority author is only successful if it succeeds in making the minority point of view unviersal" writes Wittig --and to read this book from beginning to end is to find that the author has done just that.