Erika Ostrovsky - A Constant Journey: The Fiction of Monique Wittig (Crosscurrents Modern Critiques)

From the creation of a neuter pronoun in her earliest work, LOpoponax, to the confusion of genres in her most recent fiction, Virgile, non, Monique Wittig uses literary subversion and invention to accomplish what Erika Ostrovsky appropriately defines as renversement, the annihilation of existing literary canons and the creation of highly innovative constructs. Erika Ostrovsky explores those aspects of Wittigs work that best illustrate her literary approach. Among the countless revolutionary devices that Wittig uses to achieve renversement are the feminization of masculine gender names, the reorganization of myth patterns, and the replacement of traditional punctuation with her own system of grammatical emphasis and separation. It is the unexpected quantity and quality of such literary devices that make reading Monique Wittigs fiction a fresh and rewarding experience. Such literary devices have earned Wittig the acclaim of her critics and peersMarguerite Duras, Mary McCarthy, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute, and Claude Simon, to name a few. While analyzing the intrinsic value of each of Wittigs fictions separately, Erika Ostrovsky traces the progressive development of Wittigs major literary devices as they appear and reappear in her fictions. Ostrovsky maintains that the seeds of those innovations that appear in Wittigs most recent texts can be found as far back as LOpoponax. This evidence of progression supports Ostrovskys theory that clues to Wittigs future endeavors can be found in her past.