The Tongue Snatchers

Claudine Herrmann became famous in France with he publication of Les Voleuses de langue in 1976. Her much-quoted book is now recognized as a modern classic of feminist literary criticism. Nancy Kline’s welcome English translation captures the clarity and passion of observations that go beyond books to boudoirs and boardrooms.Herrmann charges that language is the fundamental means by which women are oppressed. Their education forces them to parrot masculine discourse, often gets them dismissed as chatterboxes, and silences their real lives. Women who desire to express themselves creatively are obliged to “steal” language or to invent one of their own. Based on readings of major texts in literature, philosophy, and the social sciences, The Tongue Snatchers illuminates how men and women differ in their experiences of words, work, space, time, love, and sexuality.