VIRGINIA WOOLFS A ROOM OF ONES
VIRGINIA WOOLF’S A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN (1929): A FEMENIST READING -Aparna Mhetre
Abstract
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is a landmark of the twentieth-century feminist thought. It explores the history of women in literature through an unconventional and thorough investigation of the social and material conditions required for the writing of literature. She strongly advocates that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” The essay has become a virtual cliché in our culture and has achieved the standard of ‘one of the greatest feminist classics of the century.’ The present paper is an attempt to analyse and interpret the essay ‘A Room of One’s Own from the feminist perspective. It is evident that the arguments that Woolf puts across in this essay are relevant even today and therefore, can be used in a critical analysis of any modern novel, where women play a central role. The book provides a framework from which one can look at some of the literary texts.
The ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960s is believed to be the herald of feminism. According to Peter Barry: The feminist literary criticism of today is the direct product of the ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960s. This movement was in important ways, literary from the start, in the sense that it realized the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature, and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their coherence. (116)
But this movement did not spring up all of a sudden on its own. It was inspired by some great classics which had earlier diagnosed the problem of women’s inequality in society and also had proposed solutions to them. These great books include Mary
Abstract
Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own is a landmark of the twentieth-century feminist thought. It explores the history of women in literature through an unconventional and thorough investigation of the social and material conditions required for the writing of literature. She strongly advocates that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” The essay has become a virtual cliché in our culture and has achieved the standard of ‘one of the greatest feminist classics of the century.’ The present paper is an attempt to analyse and interpret the essay ‘A Room of One’s Own from the feminist perspective. It is evident that the arguments that Woolf puts across in this essay are relevant even today and therefore, can be used in a critical analysis of any modern novel, where women play a central role. The book provides a framework from which one can look at some of the literary texts.
The ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960s is believed to be the herald of feminism. According to Peter Barry: The feminist literary criticism of today is the direct product of the ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960s. This movement was in important ways, literary from the start, in the sense that it realized the significance of the images of women promulgated by literature, and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their coherence. (116)
But this movement did not spring up all of a sudden on its own. It was inspired by some great classics which had earlier diagnosed the problem of women’s inequality in society and also had proposed solutions to them. These great books include Mary
Cited: Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. New Delhi: Viva Books Pvt. Ltd., 2013. Reprint. Nayar, Pramod K. Literary Theory Today. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2011. Olsen Tillie. Silences. New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1978. Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors Ltd., 1999.