''The Straight Mind and Other Essays'' is a 1992 collection of essays by

Monique Wittig Monique Wittig (; July 13, 1935 – January 3, 2003) was a French author, philosopher and feminist theorist who wrote about abolition of the sex-class system and coined the phrase "heterosexual contract". Her seminal work is titled ''The Straigh ...

. 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 Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

's event, "The Scholar and the Feminist Conference, The Future of Difference". The essay appeared in French in '' Questions féministes'', 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 New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, 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