A Room of One's Own

"...as if some giant cucumber had spread itself over all the roses and carnations in the garden and choked them to death." (My italics.)

She does make me laugh, Woolf does. There is no one like her. She is smart, original, and has pure wicked wit. She is a most splendid specimen of woman's fearless mind.

Reading Woolf here sparked my brain a hundred ways, causing a five alarm fire hazard. I could hardly contain or organize the thoughts that were lit, then glowed.

So many thoughts, but for now the biggest, glitteriest ember in my on fire brain was to assess "women and fiction" for myself. That is, for me, assess the novels by women about women that I read this year. I want to look back at a few and briefly shine a Woolf fagot on them to show more see how they look in that light.

Four novels immediately come to mind and they were: Orlando, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hamnet, and The Penelopiad. Of the four, the first two were incredible, works for the ages, and as being from, as Woolf describes the phenomenon, minds that "consumed all impediments."

Both Orlando and Their Eyes possessed Woolf's own ideal of a literary quality of illumination. That quality she insists cannot have been written with anger or resentment, must not have an old axe to grind. And neither did. They both, though, addressed gender relations and oppression. Yet they were works of their genius writer's unique expressions of human joy, suffering, adventure. They shined from within.

The other two novels were very good! But, they were not as good. They came from a different mindset, out to put the record straight, or to at least give the record a firmly different female versus male perspective: Hamnet about Shakespeare's wife Anne and Penelopiad about Odysseus's wife Penelope. I agree those kinds of books need to be written now; they serve a historic purpose, a rebalancing of lopsided scales. I'm glad for having read them, building up my stores of lives imagined, the women behind the great males of literature, even if just in supposition. The works, though, both suffer as works of art, albeit not horribly, for that mission.

An honorable mention in this year's reads of a woman writing fiction as Woolf encouraged women to write, was by an Iranian author, Things We Left Unsaid. It's not of the same rank as Orlando or Their Eyes either but it's solid writing with a clear female voice and an experience of a life limited by social norms which the novel accomplished without rancor. No one likes a blunt bonk on the head, right? Let's just see what it is like to be in a certain mind and body at a certain time.

I'm not saying that there isn't a place for social criticisms, and harsh ones there should be too! But Woolf's essay reminds us that literature should be more. Woolf's prime examples were Shakespeare and Austen. Those writers certainly do say something big about the state of all number of things, ugly and unfair things, but they do it from a perspective undistracted, not dinged by personal complaints.

Woolf liked women as human beings (and also romantically). I like women (platonically) a lot and I like women who also like women as human beings. Men who are angry at women and women who hate men are boring, out of sync with reality (you simply can't succeed in whatever you are hoping to gain from that), and those haters are tempted to be cruel toward other human beings. The same can be said of other prejudices. It's unreasonable.

The best writing will come from people who do not have that personal baggage. They certainly will include male and female relationships, but they won't be preaching a message. They will, as Woolf said, "think about things in themselves" and tell us stories about them.

One more great example of another genius jumps to my mind, although I didn't read her this year. She wrote about grotesquely unequal relationships without personal bitterness, only with necessary weeping, is Toni Morrison, a woman and black American.

How delighted Woolf would be to read Morrison's work. And how celebratory of Morrison's Nobel Prize, too! Woolf foresaw that sort of thing in 1928 as prime to happen, and predicted accurately, it would happen "in another hundred years time." show less

Questo libro è un capolavoro. L'ho ascoltato in audiolibro mentre lo seguivo sul cartaceo, perché la prosa della Woolf è complessa. Non difficile, ma bella ariosa, in ascolto un po' ti ci perdi come in un sogno. Seguendo lo scritto invece ti avvolge in maniera più razionale. La prima cosa che mi ha colpito è decisamente l'ironia del testo, che denota un intelligenza veramente profonda. Le osservazioni fatte sulle difficoltà materiali e morali che le donne hanno incontrato e in parte incontrano ancora sono fatte con un acume notevole e uno sguardo sarcastico che spiazza. In secondo luogo merita l'analisi storico-letteraria che il testo produce. In terzo luogo si ricava dalle osservazioni dell'autrice una critica feroce a come la show more società dell'epoca considerava il ruolo femminile nella famiglia e nella storia, ruolo che ancora oggi purtroppo spesso non è riconosciuto adeguatamente; in questo i toni rammentano quelli manzoniani della storia fatta dagli ultimi, dagli sconosciuti; in questo caso dalle sconosciute, o meglio misconosciute scrittrici che ci hanno preceduto e hanno creato la tradizione di scrittura femminile a cui ancor oggi ci si può riallacciare. Autrice compresa. La Woolf raccomanda in sintesi indipendenza economica e di pensiero per poter scrivere liberamente. È ammirevole la sua lucidità di analisi quasi profetica, tenendo conto che siamo nel 1929: la comprensione dell'avvento prossimo di una società molto maschilista, l'idea che il tempo oltre all'economia avrebbero portato a una diversa collocazione delle donne nella società. Infine, il mio pensiero va alla stessa Virginia Woolf, alla sua vita complicata e difficile, e alla perdita che abbiamo sofferto con la sua morte prematura. Una donna così intelligente aveva ancora molto da dare e se fosse nata in un'altra epoca forse poteva finire diversamente. Ma non sarebbe diventata altrimenti un po' la capostipite del femminismo moderno insieme a Simone de beauvoir. Il libro in questione è un saggio e quindi forse non è adatto a tutti; lo consiglio in particolare a chi si interessa di storia, di letteratura e di studi di genere perché veramente apre un mondo. Come dice lei stessa, bisogna dare merito a chi ci ha preceduto nel cammino. show less

Published in 1929, the titular essay starts out as a lecture on the relationship between women and writing fiction. It is creative and thought-provoking, and not what one would expect an essay to be (at least I didn’t expect it). Woolf writes as other characters, such as Mary Seton or Mary Carmichael, but this is very much a work of non-fiction that addresses the reasons it was so difficult in the past for women to write fiction, including societal mores of earlier eras when women had limited (or no) access to funds, education, or private time. She lauds the accomplishment of early women fiction writers such as Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontë sisters.

She takes issue with the men of her own and earlier times who wrote about show more women. She analyzes several of their works and find that they primarily portray women in limited roles in support of men. Some of these works make outlandish statements that refer to the lesser status of women in the traits such as morality and mental abilities. It made me very glad I did not live back then. While there are still issues in present day, it is certainly nothing like what women of the 19th century (and earlier) had to face. For example, it was acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, and women could not own property. Woolf’s style of expression is unique and creative. I found an edition of this work that included the titular essay (5 stars) and five short stories (4 stars), one of which, my favorite of the bunch, even mentions Clarissa Dalloway. show less

"No es posible que en ninguna época haya existido tan estridente preocupación por la sexualidad como en la nuestra;[...]sin duda tenía la cumpla la campaña de las sufragistas. Debía de haber despertado en los hombres un extraordinario deseo de autoafirmación; debía de haberles empujado a hacer resaltar su propio sexo y sus características, en las que no se habrían molestado en pensar si no les hubieran desafiado."

Pocas veces me atrevo a decir que un libro tiene una verdadera capacidad de cambiar la vida del lector, creo que este es del tipo que la tiene pero sólo cuando se lee sin juzgar, y esto se debe a la situación del feminismo en el panorama actual. En este libro nos encontramos con la verdadera esencia del feminismo, show more ese que hablaba claramente de los problemas que las mujeres tienen por ser mujeres y que consecuencias trae para ellas, pero no lo hace desde la misantropia ni la victimización, sino con una racionalidad que te deja ver porque esta obra ha trascendido.

Leer un cuarto propio siendo mujer es sentirse identificada, es saber que lo que te van narrado es algo que probablemente has pasado y que casi seguro tus amigos y familiares hombres no entenderían ¿Cómo pueden entender que aún hoy en países desarrollados como Francia hay lugares donde las mujeres tienen prohibida la entrada? ¿O como pueden entender lo decepcionante, díficil y desagradable que es el que un par, o grupo, compuesto sólo por mujeres, sea considerado ir solas? ¿O que en países considerados desarrollados las mujeres sólo sean objetos de adorno o se considere la posibilidad de hacer legal, o muy poco grave, golpear a tu esposa? ¿O que la brecha salarial entre hombres y mujeres va desde el 14% hasta el 35%? Es básicamente imposible que lo haga, y aunque desde que Woolf escribio este libro hay cosas que han cambiado aun existe muchísimo machismo y las mujeres aun son tratadas como seres humanos de segunda clase; pero la maestría de Woolf está en decir algo que la apasiona sin necesidad de hacer creer que la solución se encuentra en doblegar o deshacerse del otro género, de crear una nueva brecha pero en sentido contrario sino en demostrar porque habla de estos temas, porque son importantes. Hoy en día este último aspecto se ha pérdido en demasia, aunque aun existen exponentes públicas que retoman la retórica e ideología de Woolf para transmitir este mensaje.

Ahora bien, leyendo este libro siendo hombre se convierte en una montaña rusa de excepticismo y preguntas. Mientras yo leía este libro, un buen amigo mio también lo hizo y al inicio me dijo "ahora ya las mujeres no tienen prohibida la entrada a las bibliotecas" pero conforme avanzaba, y especialmente en la parte en que Woolf habla del valor del dinero en la vida de una mujer, no pudo evitar preguntarme acerca de si realmente las cosas eran así o sí nos sentiamos de esa manera ¡Vaya conversaciones que este libro nos permitío tener! Es aquí donde me refiero a que puede cambiar vidas, sí incluso una persona que se considera bastante progresista creecreía que el feminismo ya no es necesario, con este libro, leído de manera objetiva, puede notar que aun hay muchísima desigualdad, sólo que plenamente normalizada y eso puede motivarlo a que haya un cambio.

Si bien creo que me estoy saliendo de "hablar del libro" a "hablar de lo que habla el libro" ó "hablar de como me hizo sentir lo que me habla el libro" pero creo que cuando vives en un país donde el machismo es algo de cada día, donde la sociedad es patriarcal pero la madre tiene un papel idealizado, y en el que las mujeres automáticamente son consideradas unas putas para el momento en que llegan a los 16 años, es importante tomar libros como esté desde el punto de vista del que hace por ti, de que manera puede cambiarte, y no sólo de lo que esta hablando, porque sí ahora hablar de la necesidad de que hombres y mujeres tengan los mismos derechos terminá siendo una excusa para que te agredan, es imposible no imaginar como debio ser hace casi 100 años, y es por ello que este trabajo vale aún más, porque trata un tema tan vigente pero al mismo tiempo tan añejo, y que finalmente es un tema del que se seguirá hablando, aún cuando se alcanzará el objetivo dado que, cómo bien sabemos, cuando se deja de luchar por los derechos estos se escapan como la arena entre los dedos. show less

Woolf's book-length essay is an interesting perspective into her often challenging mind, filled with writing that is as imaginative as the kind that is found in her fiction but is more direct, straightforward, and accessible.

The essay imagines a number of situations in which Woolf or another talented woman is stifled by the customs of the times -- whether it is her experience of being restricted from a university library or her imagined "Shakespeare's sister," whose work goes unwritten because of her sex. Through these imagined situations, Woolf argues for two major points: that the female mind (and female fiction, specifically) is fundamentally different than that of the male; and that for women to write good fiction, they need the show more eponymous room of their own and a 500-pound-a-year stipend. While the latter point is more famous (and also more dated), the timeliness and accuracy of her assessment of female fiction remains powerful and convincing.

Despite such clarity of purpose, the essay's form is more meandering than strictly argumentative, taking off from anecdotes rather than points of strict discussion. Not unlike Mrs. Dalloway or To The Lighthouse, Woolf writes in a way that is willing to sacrifice directness in exchange for extreme detail and examination. Her stories are intoxicating and easy to lose oneself in, though she is adept at pulling away and getting to the point when necessary.

It is this quality that is perhaps the most appealing thing about reading A Room of One's Own. Unlike her more experimental fiction, the novel is easy to read and to follow, while also containing passages of eloquent prose. The text also lends itself to a number of critical apparatuses, though the feminist angle is the most obvious. For this reason, it is both a useful academic text as well as a very readable selection for pleasure or casual enjoyment.

While the threat of reading nonfiction can be a turn-off for many -- and the name Virginia Woolf can be an equally strong turn-off! -- A Room of One's Own is a significant and substantive work that is worth attention even after nearly a hundred years has passed. show less

For such a spot-on piece of feminism, this had some very narrow-minded literary criticism. I don't even know how to rate it - there are a few 5-star sections and even more 2-star sections, and I could tell you precisely where each begins and ends.

Maybe it's just that the rant about writing has aged badly. One can only blabber so much about women writers and men writers before the modern reader starts asking for information about people writers. Still, I can't help but think that, for a bisexual bipolar intellectual woman, Woolf was a bit of a literary fundamentalist. Women must write as women, not as men - but they mustn't try too hard or the writing will become whiny and tainted (apparently literary genius and self-expression are show more mutually incompatible - yes, she says this explicitly). Except the best writing minds are androgynous, so they should avoid becoming dissociated from their inner man. I'm sorry, what?

Anyway, let's say that the lit-crit part has aged badly. Why, then, does the feminist discourse in this ring so modern and real? It's just as old as the rest of the book, yet it's not even remotely as outdated. The more I think about this, the more frightening it seems to me. show less

An unequivocal feminist text and so much more, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own sufficiently coalesces with her own fictional writing prowess. Using a character in the name of Mary "Any-Surname", Woolf tells of women's history, factual and sharp, and dissects this further through fictional Mary's personal history. This is further develop by Woolf's, through Mary, musings and sentiments regarding women's role in society, much more of what she needs in pursuing a career, a writing career in this instance, that she is passionate about. But achieving this is not without hurdles and struggles because women do not have the same rights and privileges as men. It is more than just about having a room of one's own with 500 pounds a year.

Woolf show more is not preachy but passionately informative and does not stop here. She further reaches out and proposes not solutions but an "androgynous mind" which according to her is the best mind and for me should be the default ("In each of us two powers preside, one male, one female…The androgynous mind is resonant and porous… naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.") Luckily, human minds are powerful enough to develop and open up to such a mature way of thinking. I would like to believe. Moreover, how she examines classic female writers, their writing, and in this case a modern fictitious author, under the the patriarchal system is significantly thought-provoking. I only wonder why Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Shelley (credited as the inventor of the sci-fi genre), are not included in this. Perhaps Woolf does not hold the sci-fi genre in high regard? Nonetheless, her hypothesis about an existence of a female Shakespeare (through Shakespeare's "sister" Judith who in reality is Shakespeare's daughter) would not be far from the truth if she were indeed alive. Remember when women, so-called "witches", were burned at the stake?

For such a short book, A Room of One's Own never leaves any inequality unscrutinised. As old as some of these problems are, what with the progress of women's rights, there is still so much to do particularly about women of colour and inclusion of trans women. As a matter of fact what Woolf has iterated time and time in again that "The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself" is still relevant and observed today. A piercing book. show less