''The Straight Mind and Other Essays'' is a 1992 collection of essays by Monique Wittig. The collection was translated into French as ''La pensée straight'' in 2001. The title essay, "The Straight Mind", was delivered to the Modern Language Association annual convention in 1978.

Summary

In April 1979, Wittig delivered her essay, "The Straight Mind", as the morning keynote address at Barnard College's event, "The Scholar and the Feminist Conference, The Future of Difference". The essay appeared in French in ''

Questions féministes ''Questions féministes'' (''Feminist Questions'') was a French feminist journal published from 1977 to 1980. History The journal was founded by a group of feminists that included Simone de Beauvoir, Christine Delphy, Colette Capitan, Colette Guil ...

'', where the editorial collective, which included Wittig, splintered over "the lesbian question" leading to a dissolution of the collective and end to the publication. It also appeared in English in ''Feminist Issues''. "One Is Not Born a Woman", delivered in September 1979 at the "30th Anniversary Conference of the Second Sex" held at New York University, takes up the outcomes of

Simone de Beauvoir Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...

's feminist political visions for lesbians. Wittig writes "Lesbians Are Not Women" under the assumption that the term "woman" is defined by men. Moreover, she compares lesbians to fugitive slaves. "The Trojan Horse" explains her theory of literature as a "war machine", echoing

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

.Alice Jardine, 'Thinking Wittig's Differences; "Or, Failing That, Invent"', ''Monique Wittig: At the Crossroads of Criticism'', GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, special issue, Duke University Press, 2007, page 459

References

1992 non-fiction books Beacon Press books Books by Monique Wittig French essay collections Lesbian feminist books Lesbian non-fiction books Radical feminist books 1990s LGBT literature {{LGBT-book-stub