On freeing language: interview with Dominique Bourque, Wittig scholar and co-founder and director of les éditions sans fin.

Abstract

In this shortened version of an interview granted in 2023 to the journalist Jenofa Berhokoirigoin (ARGIA, translated by Anna Bogic), I discuss Monique Wittig's main contributions to political analysis and literature. Her elaboration of materialist lesbianism identifies the political positioning of lesbians in relation to the vast system of oppression of social groups that she has called the "regime of heterosexuality". For Wittig, powerful social groups establish themselves as representative humans by particularizing and naturalizing other social groups. Moreover, they mask the oppression they inflict on them by attempting to control the meaning of words and, through their use, their thoughts. In her novels, Wittig reactivates the semantic potential of words so that her characters can express their own view on the world. In addition, the writer avoids or neutralizes (un-marks) the gender mark to counter the reduction of human females to their sex. Wittig also represents the development of a personal and collective consciousness among its protagonists. For her, while the imaginary is a space of resistance against totalitarian "straight Mind", political struggle remains necessary and emancipation is a conceivable horizon. The insistence on the materiality of the protagonists in the Lesbian Corps reminds us of this.