Wittig's book is inextricably linked with her feminist theory but can also be enjoyed as experimental fiction.

They, the women, the integrity of the body their first principle, advance marching together into another world. They say that any symbol that exalts the fragmented body is transient, must disappear. They say that they must break the last bond that binds them to a dead culture. They say they must now stop exalting the vulva. They say henceforward what they are is not subject to compromise. It balances femininity and brutality excellently, never favoring one over the other. Something to think about.Īnyway, I strongly recommend it. They also share a surrealistic narrative set in a pastoral,sheltered,dystopian environment. I am curious whether or not Les Guerilleres influenced the Louis Malle film Black Moon in any way they share in common a brutal war between the sexes and both emphasize the female side. I love creative formatting used within prose narratives, so these interludes were exciting. A lot of gorgeous pastoral,post-apocalyptic imagery punctuated by pages featuring either large letter 'O's (which,in the book, are vulval symbols) or columns of female names both elaborate and mundane (Clytemnestra, Anne,etc etc). It avoids the 'men are pigs' cliche, even when the Amazonian barbarian babes are spearing them down,flaying them open, and tanning their hides. It handles militant feminism in a palatable and beautifully written way that I don't find at all isolating or discomforting. This book really deserves a review more in-depth than 'lyrically written disjointed barbarian woman vignettes,' but that's all I got right now.

Les guerilleres