One of the most widely read feminist texts of the twentieth century, and Monique Wittig’s most popular novel, Les Guérillères imagines the attack on the language and bodies of men by a tribe of warrior women. Among the women’s most powerful weapons in their assault is laughter, but they also threaten literary and linguistic customs of the patriarchal order with bullets. In this breathtakingly rapid novel first published in 1969, Wittig animates a lesbian society that invites all women to join their fight, their circle, and their community. A path-breaking novel about creating and sustaining freedom, the book derives much of its energy from its vaunting of the female body as a resource for literary invention.

Manifestoes and public spheres: probing modernity -- Manifestoes and revolutionary discourse: women in the cross fire -- Militant allies, strange bedfellows: suffragettes and vorticists before the war -- Modernists and gatekeeping manifestoes: Pound, Loy and modern sanctions -- A second-wave problematic: how to be a radical.

Contemporary Feminist Utopianismis a stimulating, original and accessible survey of some of the more complex strands of contemporary thought. Exploring current debates within utopian studies, feminist theory and poststructuralist deconstruction, Lucy Sargisson argues for utopianism as a route out of the dilemma of contemporary feminism as well as a way of conceptualizing its current situation. The author rejects approaches to utopianism which insist upon utopia as a perfect blueprint for the future. Instead, she identifies a new transgressive utopianism which destroys old certainties in favor of a new and more unsettling vision of a feminist future. This utopianism stresses process over product and is informed by contemporary poststructuralist theories of language. Such a utopianism resists closure, negating and destroying the dualistic system of thought she argues underpins the western tradition.

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

Back in print, this daring novel constitutes a rhapsodic hymn to women's bodies and women's relationships. "That rare work in fiction . . . the art and the courage are of the highest level." -The Boston Globe

Monique Wittig, who died in January 2003, was a leading French feminist, social theorist, prose poet, and novelist--and an activist who helped start the lesbian and women's liberation movements in France. This collection of essays by Wittig and on her work is the first sustained examination in English of her broad-ranging political, literary, and theoretical viewpoints. On Monique Wittig contains twelve essays, representing French, Francophone, and U.S. critics, including three previously unpublished pieces by Wittig herself. Among the essays is Diane Griffin Crowder's discussion of the U.S. feminist movement, Linda Zerilli's consideration of gender and will, and Teresa de Lauretis's examination of the development of lesbian theory. Together, these essays situate Wittig's work in terms of the cultural contexts of its production and reception. This volume also contains the first authenticated chronology of Wittig's life and features the first translation of "For a Movement of Women's Liberation," which Wittig published with other "militantes" in May 1970. As the first book to appear on Wittig following her death, On Monique Wittig is an indispensable tool for feminist scholars.