''Les Guérillères'' is a 1969 novel 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 Strai ...

.Martin, Douglas, ''Monique Wittig, 67, Feminist Writer, Dies'', New York Times, January 12, 2003
It was translated to English in 1971. __TOC__

Plot introduction

''Les Guérillères'' is about a war of the sexes, where women 'engage in bloody, victorious battles using knives, machine guns and rocket launchers'. Moreover, sympathetic males join them in their combat.

Literary significance and criticism

An early appreciation of the English translation (by David Le Vay) came from British journalist Sally Beauman, writing in ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

''. Beauman considered it a miraculous achievement: it "is the first novel (or hymn, for this book is close to

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...

) of

Women's Liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...

". However, Roger Sale in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' opined, 'The book itself turns out to be, sadly, oddly, at times almost maddeningly, quite dull'. Some say the novel is based on a concept of women's superiority. "'... ne feminist critics like Toril Moi and Nina Auerbach have read ''Les guérillères'' as a closed structure, in which women win the war and institute a new equilibrium of women ruling men'". Toril Moi described the novel as a "depict

on of On, on, or ON may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * On (band), a solo project of Ken Andrews * On (EP), ''On'' (EP), a 1993 EP by Aphex Twin * On (Echobelly album), ''On'' (Echobelly album), 1995 * On (Gary Glitter album), ''On'' (Gary Glit ...

... life in an Amazonian society involved in a war against men ....

n which N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

e war is finally won by the women, and peace is celebrated by them and the young men who have been won over to their cause." According to Nina Auerbach, the novel "is the incantatory account of the training and triumph of a female army. Here, the buried warfare of Muriel"Spark's communities explodes in a new Amazonianism." These interpretations are not universal, as Linda M.G. Zerilli argued that more important was Monique Wittig's creation of an "'open structure' of freedom."

Polyandry Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives ...

, described in the novel, is interpreted by Laurence M. Porter as part of "militant feminist autonomy".Porter, Laurence M., ''Feminist Fantasy and Open Structure in Monique Wittig's Les Guérillères'', ''op. cit.'', p. 267. The novel's 1985 English translation says, " e of e_women".html" ;"title=" e women""> e women"... relates the story of Vlasta. She tells how under Vlasta's guidance the first female State was created.... Another of them recalls that in the female State men were tolerated only for servile tasks and that they were forbidden under pain of death to bear arms or mount on horseback.... Vlasta's warriors teach all the peasant women who join them how to handle arms." "The women address the young men in these terms, now you understand that we have been fighting as much for you as for ourselves." "They say, it would be a grave mistake to imagine that I would go, me, a woman, to speak violently against men when they have ceased to be my enemies." " ey sing and dance.... Someone interrupts them to praise those males who have joined them in their struggle. Then, ... she begins to read an unfolded paper, for example, When the world changes and one day women are capable of seizing power and devoting themselves to the exercise of arms and letters in which they will doubtless soon excel, woe betide us. I am certain they will pay us out a hundredfold, that they will make us stay all day by the distaff the shuttle and the spinning-wheel, that they will send us to wash dishes in the kitchen. We shall richly deserve it. At these words all the women shout and laugh and clap each other on the shoulder to show their contentment." By an interpretation, the women and "those men of good will who come to join them" reconcile.Porter, Laurence M., ''Feminist Fantasy and Open Structure in Monique Wittig's Les Guérillères'', ''op. cit.'', p. 267 (citing pp. 176–208 in the French ed.). Also by an interpretation, " in the legend of the Amazons, ... it is the women who decide both where to live and how to govern."

Impact on popular culture

The novel inspired Beatriz Santiago Muñoz's ''Song, Strategy, Sign'' (2016) film work.

References

* http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wittig_monique {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerilleres, Les 1969 French novels 1969 science fiction novels French science fiction novels Books by Monique Wittig Lesbian feminist books Novels with lesbian themes Feminist novels Radical feminist books French political novels French LGBT novels Les Éditions de Minuit books