Monique Wittig’s French-American Legacy: Adèle Haenel, Sande Zeig, Annabel L. Kim & Noémie Solomon

2023 marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of philosopher, writer, and lesbian feminist activist Monique Wittig. A key figure on the French literary scene in the 1960s, she won the prestigious Prix Médicis at just 29, in 1964, with her first novel, L’Opoponax. Her other novels include Les guérillères, 1971, Le corps lesbien, 1973, Brouillon pour un dictionnaire des amantes avec Sande Zeig , 1976, and Virgile, non, 1985. Her theoretical books include The Straight Mind and Other Essays and Le chantier littéraire.

Monique Wittig co-founded the Mouvement de Libération des Femmes (Women’s Liberation Movement) in 1970 and went on to become one of the most important feminist theorists, notably with the concept of the “Heterosexual Contract.” She moved to the US in 1976 to teach at various universities, including the University of California Berkeley, Vassar College and the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she lived and taught until the end of her life.

This anniversary is an opportunity to examine the reception and legacy of Monique Wittig’s work today, both in France and in the United States. The evening, centered on three speakers of different nationalities and generations – filmmaker and former Wittig companion Sande Zeig, actress Adèle Haenel and academic Annabel Kim – is conceived in collaboration with choreographer Gisèle Vienne and moderated by academic Noémie Solomon. The discussion will highlight the prescience and the radicality of a thought that echoes major contemporary debates and struggles, and continues to influence many thinkers, authors and artists around the world.

A live reading and a preview of work-in-progress scenes from the documentary Wittig, Yes will precede the talk.

This event is free with RSVP. Click here for ticket. The conversation will be in English.