Women and Writing: A Room of One’s Own — Virginia Woolf
Gurinder Purewal
Introduction
A Room of One’s Own originates from two lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf in 1928. She then expanded these lectures into a single, extended essay published in 1929. The essay begins by addressing the topic of women and fiction but soon broadens to explore wider issues of sexism and its impact on women’s creativity in art. Woolf presents the essay as a reflection of her own thoughts on the subject. As she dives into the history of women in literature, she discovers a clear absence of prominent female authors before the nineteenth century. The historical gap suggests that women existed primarily in the literature created by men, from a male perspective. In response, Woolf imagines women’s lives to better understand why female authors have been so marginal in the literature (Woolf 1935).
Reading
Access the reading via the Internet Archive: A Room of One’s Own — Chapter I and II (pp. 5–61) (Woolf 1935)
Discussion Questions
Women and Fiction
Woolf speaks on why it is important for women writers to have their own freedom.
- According to Woolf, what is the connection between “women and fiction” and a room of one’s own?
Cultural Poverty
- What significance does the poor quality of the dinner at the women’s college represent? How does this matter trigger an investigation into the origins of the women’s college? What over-arching assumptions does Woolf conclude about women’s cultural deprivation from this experience?
Bibliography
Woolf, Virgina. 1935. A Room of One’s Own. London: Hogarth Press. https://archive.org/embed/woolf_aroom.
How to Cite This Page
Purewal, Gurinder. 2024. “Women and Writing: A Room of One’s Own — Virginia Woolf.” In Great Thinkers, edited by Gurinder Purewal and Jenna Woodrow. Kamloops, BC: TRU Open Press. https://greatthinkers.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/a-room-of-ones-own-woolf/.
