Monique Wittig: A Living Body (of Work)

To mark the release of With Wittig: A Living Body (of Work),* a special issue of L’Esprit créateur, join us for an evening of readings and conversation exploring the legacy of lesbian-feminist writer Monique Wittig.

Monique Wittig (1935–2003) was a pioneering French novelist, theorist, and activist known for her radical rethinking of language and gender. After the release of her first novel L’Opoponax—which received the Prix Médicis in 1964—she became a central figure in the women’s liberation movement in Paris during the 1970s. While remaining involved with feminist and lesbian materialism and politics in France, she moved to the United States in 1976 with her partner, Sande Zeig. There, her work reached a new generation of thinkers who would help shape the rise of queer theory in the 1990s.

The event will be introduced and chaired by two of the publication’s co-editors, William M. Burton (UC Berkeley) and Benoît Loiseau (NYU / Université Paris 8), and will celebrate Wittig’s evolving legacy while highlighting recent and forthcoming engagements with her work across literature, film, and theory. Participants include Sande Zeig (writer and filmmaker), Elisabeth Paquette (SUNY – University at Buffalo), and Theo Mantion (Harvard University).

This event is supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

*“With Wittig: A Living Body (of Work)” will be published by L’Esprit Créateur (Johns Hopkins University Press) in Summer–Fall 2025. Edited by William M. Burton, Ilana Eloit (Université de Genève), and Benoît Loiseau, the issue builds on the two-part international conference “Monique Wittig: Twenty Years Later / Vingt ans après,” held at UC Berkeley and Université de Genève in 2023.

Photo credit: Colette Geoffrey