a room of one's own
by virginia woolf
★★★★☆
dates read: 1/15/23 - 1/25/23
"A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy."
a room of one's own is such a beautifully written commentary on the minimal space that women hold within the literary sphere of a patriarchal society.
while the text is very straightforward in its exploration of women and fiction, i did not find this an easy read. i enjoy a challenge, but knowing i had picked up this essay to read out of leisure had me lagging in its completion. i’m still unsure if woolf's writing style is attuned to my tastes, but fortunately enough the subject she addressed and how she addressed it overcame those obstacles.
woolf is very witty in how she chooses to address the male commentary on female inferiority and their obsession with superiority. i audibly laughed out loud. yet at the same time, she makes it abundantly clear that she is not a misandrist and supports the equal promotion of both men and women. all she desires is for people to write about whatever they want to write with little preference for either gender. modern day feminism is often generalized as form of radical misandry and i think a room of one's own is the perfect counter example to such a harmful narrative.
she is also creative in how she chooses to support her argument, which is through a multitude of fictitious elements that really played to her strengths as an author. one of my favorites had to be when she exemplified the lost potential of women through shakespeare’s fictional sister who had the potential for success but unfortunately was never able to put pen to paper due to the societal circumstances of her womanhood.
i can only imagine what it must have been like to hear woolf orally read this essay out loud to an auditorium full of female scholars. if i could built a time machine, i would have definitely made a stop in 1928 just to hear it with my own ears.
“Why does Samuel Butler say, 'Wise men never say what they think of women'? Wise men never say anything else apparently.”
