Monique Wittig Quotes

• There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . You say there are no words to describe this time, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent.

  Monique Wittig

  Time, Laughter, Remember You

  60 Copy quote

• For there is no sex. There is but sex that is oppressed and sex that oppresses. It is oppression that creates sex and not the contrary.

  Monique Wittig

  Sex, Oppression, Contrary

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  37 Copy quote

• Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body, stamping it and violently shaping it.

  Monique Wittig

  Reality, Body, Language

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  30 Copy quote

• Frankly, [the definition of woman] is a problem that the lesbians do not have because of a change of perspective. 'Woman' has meaning only in heterosexual systems of thought and heterosexual, economic systems. Lesbians are not women.

  Monique Wittig

  Perspective, Definitions, Problem

  14 Copy quote

• The category of sex is the political category that founds society as heterosexual.

  Monique Wittig

  Sex, Political, Found

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  29 Copy quote

• Today, together, let us repeat as our slogan that all trace of violence must disappear from this earth, then the sun will be honey-colored and music good to hear.

  Monique Wittig

  Peace, Together, Earth

  17 Copy quote

• Not only do we naturalize history, but also consequently we naturalize the social phenomena which express our oppression, making change impossible

  Monique Wittig

  Impossible, Oppression, Making Changes

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  14 Copy quote

• The dictionary is, however, only a rough draft.

  Monique Wittig

  Rough Drafts, Language, Rough

  Monique Wittig, Sande Zeig (1979). “Lesbian Peoples: Material for a Dictionary”, Avon Books

  17 Copy quote

• men are not born with a faculty for the universal and ... women are not reduced at birth to the particular. The universal has been, and is continually, at every moment, appropriated by men. It does not happen by magic, it must be done. It is an act, a criminal act, perpetrated by one class against another. It is an act carried out at the level of concepts, philosophy, politics.

  Monique Wittig

  Philosophy, Men, Class

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  11 Copy quote

• A materialist feminist approach to women's oppression destroys the idea that women are a 'natural group' . . . What the analysis accomplishes on the level of ideas, practice makes actual at the level of facts: by its very existence, lesbian society destroys the artificial (social) fact constituting women as a 'natural group.' A lesbian society pragmatically reveals that the division from men of which women have been the object is a political one . . .

  Monique Wittig

  Men, Practice, Ideas

  14 Copy quote

• ... I am with fire between my teeth and still nothing but my blank page.

  Monique Wittig

  Fire, Teeth, Pages

  26 Copy quote

• It is oppression that creates sex and not the contrary. The contrary would be to say that sex creates oppression, or to say that the cause (origin) of oppression is to be found in sex itself, in a natural division of the sexes preexisting (or outside of) society.

  Monique Wittig

  Sex, Causes, Would Be

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  11 Copy quote

• Remember. Or, failing that, invent.

  Monique Wittig

  Remember, Failing

  Monique Wittig (2007). “Les Guerilleres”, p.75, University of Illinois Press

  11 Copy quote

• The basic agreement between human beings, indeed what makes them human and makes them social, is language.

  Monique Wittig

  Agreement, Language, Social

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  11 Copy quote

• I feel a near passion for intelligence at grips with itself and not letting go.

  Monique Wittig

  Letting Go, Passion, Intelligence

  Monique Wittig (1987). “Across the Acheron”, Dufour Editions

  11 Copy quote

• The class struggle is precisely that which resolves the contradictions between two opposed classes by abolishing them at the same time that it constitutes and reveals them as classes.

  Monique Wittig

  Struggle, Class, Two

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  13 Copy quote

• there is no 'feminine writing' ... and one makes a mistake is using and giving currency to this expression.

  Monique Wittig

  Mistake, Writing, Expression

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  10 Copy quote

• The bearers of fables are very welcome.

  Monique Wittig

  Fables, Welcome, Myth

  Monique Wittig (2007). “Les Guerilleres”, p.51, University of Illinois Press

  4 Copy quote

• They say that there is no reality before it has been given shape by words rules regulations. They say that in what concerns them everything has to be remade starting from basic principles. They say that in the first place the vocabulary of every language is to be examined, modified, turned upside down, that every word must be screened.

  Monique Wittig

  Reality, Vocabulary, Shapes

  Monique Wittig (2007). “Les Guerilleres”, p.111, University of Illinois Press

  5 Copy quote

• It is quite possible for a work of literature to operate as a war machine upon its epoch.

  Monique Wittig

  War, Machines, Literature

  Monique Wittig (1992). “The Straight Mind: And Other Essays”, Beacon Press (MA)

  11 Copy quote

• I refuse to pronounce the names of possession and nonpossession.

  Monique Wittig

  Names, Possession, Refuse

  Monique Wittig (2007). “Les Guerilleres”, p.88, University of Illinois Press

  4 Copy quote

• They say that oppression engenders hate. They are heard on all sides crying hate hate.

  Monique Wittig

  Hate, Sides, Cry

  4 Copy quote

• One is a writer, or one is not.

  Monique Wittig

  4 Copy quote

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