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    The Literary Workshop

    The Chaotic Space Where Books Are Made

    Author Monique Wittig
    Translated by Ann Jefferson
    Foreword by Sande Zeig
    Ebook (EPUB)
    Verso Books | Verso
    On sale Jul 14, 2026 | 192 Pages | 9781804294475
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    Radical lesbian feminist theorist and author Monique Wittig theorizes writing as labor and demonstrates where literature’s political power comes from

    The Literary Workshop takes readers inside Monique Wittig’s creative process, unlocking the practice of writing both in material and political terms. Wittig provides her most com­plete account of how literature and politics work together. Part of the generation that revolutionized French literature, Wittig reveals the secret of her craft: that the work a writer does with language is itself a form of resistance.

    Born and raised in France, Monique Wittig (1935–2003) was a driving force in second-wave feminism and one of the most brilliant authors of her generation. A provocative thinker, she famously declared that lesbians are not women and in­troduced women into a materialist framework by treating them as a class. Wittig is the author of, among other titles, The Straight Mind, Les Guérillères, and The Lesbian Body. Her debut novel, The Opoponax, won Le Prix Medicis.
    "Wittig became a celebrity in the American women's movement. Her collection of essays, The Straight Mind (1992), is witty, imaginative and, as ever, experimental. It is her imaginative use of style-as-politics that will be her lasting legacy, influencing writers as diverse as Kathy Acker and Jeanette Winterson."
    —Guardian

    "A key figure in French feminism, perhaps the foremost theorist of a profoundly radical lesbianism"
    —Publishers Weekly

    "A dazzling writer. Her words are lucid and gleaming like moonlight"
    —Edna O’Brien, author of The Country Girls
    Monique Wittig was a feminist, activist and one of the most brilliant authors of her generation. A provocative thinker, she famously declared that lesbians are not women, and introduced women into a Marxist framework by treating women as a class. Wittig is the author of The Straight Mind, Les Guérillères, and The Lesbian Body.
    Monique Wittig View titles by Monique Wittig
    FOREWORD by Sande Zeig

    NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION by Ann Jefferson


    THE LITERARY WORKSHOP
    INTRODUCTION
    Proposition 1
    On The Heterogeneity and the Instability of the Components Present
    Proposition 2
    On the Materiality of Language
    Proposition 3
    On the Effect of Abstract Philosophical Categories on Social Reality
    Proposition 4
    On the Various Effects of Physical Language
    THE LITERARY WORKSHOP
    THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
    PRE-EXISTING FORMS: LITERATURE
    WORK ON LANGUAGE
    1.From Conventional Words to Raw Words
    2.Material Words
    3.Signifieds
    PHILOSOPHICAL CATEGORIES: THE EXAMPLE OF GENDER


    CONCLUSION


    THE MAKING OF WITTIG’S WORKSHOP by Christine Planté

    About

    Radical lesbian feminist theorist and author Monique Wittig theorizes writing as labor and demonstrates where literature’s political power comes from

    The Literary Workshop takes readers inside Monique Wittig’s creative process, unlocking the practice of writing both in material and political terms. Wittig provides her most com­plete account of how literature and politics work together. Part of the generation that revolutionized French literature, Wittig reveals the secret of her craft: that the work a writer does with language is itself a form of resistance.

    Born and raised in France, Monique Wittig (1935–2003) was a driving force in second-wave feminism and one of the most brilliant authors of her generation. A provocative thinker, she famously declared that lesbians are not women and in­troduced women into a materialist framework by treating them as a class. Wittig is the author of, among other titles, The Straight Mind, Les Guérillères, and The Lesbian Body. Her debut novel, The Opoponax, won Le Prix Medicis.

    Reviews

    "Wittig became a celebrity in the American women's movement. Her collection of essays, The Straight Mind (1992), is witty, imaginative and, as ever, experimental. It is her imaginative use of style-as-politics that will be her lasting legacy, influencing writers as diverse as Kathy Acker and Jeanette Winterson."
    —Guardian

    "A key figure in French feminism, perhaps the foremost theorist of a profoundly radical lesbianism"
    —Publishers Weekly

    "A dazzling writer. Her words are lucid and gleaming like moonlight"
    —Edna O’Brien, author of The Country Girls

    Author

    Monique Wittig was a feminist, activist and one of the most brilliant authors of her generation. A provocative thinker, she famously declared that lesbians are not women, and introduced women into a Marxist framework by treating women as a class. Wittig is the author of The Straight Mind, Les Guérillères, and The Lesbian Body.
    Monique Wittig View titles by Monique Wittig

    Table of Contents

    FOREWORD by Sande Zeig

    NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION by Ann Jefferson


    THE LITERARY WORKSHOP
    INTRODUCTION
    Proposition 1
    On The Heterogeneity and the Instability of the Components Present
    Proposition 2
    On the Materiality of Language
    Proposition 3
    On the Effect of Abstract Philosophical Categories on Social Reality
    Proposition 4
    On the Various Effects of Physical Language
    THE LITERARY WORKSHOP
    THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
    PRE-EXISTING FORMS: LITERATURE
    WORK ON LANGUAGE
    1.From Conventional Words to Raw Words
    2.Material Words
    3.Signifieds
    PHILOSOPHICAL CATEGORIES: THE EXAMPLE OF GENDER


    CONCLUSION


    THE MAKING OF WITTIG’S WORKSHOP by Christine Planté

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