Study Notes on Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own

A Room of One’s Own Overview

  • Author: Virginia Woolf

  • Publication Year: 1929

  • Significance: Recognized as a groundbreaking achievement in feminist criticism, often referred to as the "first major achievement of feminist criticism in the English language" (Gilbert and Gubar 1317).

Literary Style

  • Modernist Style: Utilizes stream-of-consciousness writing, which is characterized by:

    • A dialogic approach.

    • Non-linear narrative structure.

    • A conversational tone.

    • Questioning of authority and dominant literary forms.

Themes Explored

  • Prejudices and Obstacles: Investigates various barriers that hinder women’s development as "geniuses," artists, and writers, which include:

    • Economic obstacles

    • Educational barriers

    • Institutional constraints

    • Linguistic limitations

  • Representation:

    • Women are depicted as:

    • Objects of representation.

    • Authors and artists capable of expressing life’s limitations and possibilities.

Women and Education in England (1879-1974)

  • Period of Change: 1879-1952 saw the establishment of women's colleges due to individual initiatives and the work of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (AEW).

    • Key Colleges Opened:

    • Lady Margaret Hall & Somerville: 1879

    • St Hugh's: 1886

    • St Hilda's: 1893

    • St Anne's: 1952

  • Milestones:

    • 1920: Women officially admitted to Oxford University, having previously been allowed to attend lectures and sit for some examinations for over 40 years.

    • 1948: Agnes Headlam-Morley was the first woman appointed to a full professorship at Oxford, later becoming the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations.

    • 1974: The five all-male colleges at Oxford (Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford, and St Catherine’s) began admitting women students.

Chapter Breakdown of A Room of One’s Own

  • Chapter 1: Oxbridge: Study of women and fiction, exploring the history of universities, including aspects of materials, labor, wealth, and gender.

  • Chapter 2: Focuses on the British Museum and addresses themes of "truth" as related to men, history, women's financial independence, and anger.

  • Chapter 3: History & Literature (1400-1600): Examines the material circumstances of history, literature, gender, and genius.

  • Chapter 4: Discusses British women’s early literature from 1661 to 1800.

  • Chapter 5: Looks at women exploring new literary territories in the 19th century.

  • Chapter 6: Explores the unified mind and the possibilities for the present and future.

Chapter 3: History & Literature (1400-1600)

  • Concept of Woman:

    • Described as a “queer composite creature” with dual nature:

    • Imaginatively: Infinitely beautiful and hideous.

    • Practically: Described as "completely insignificant," often treated as property or a “vessel.”

    • The historical absence of women: "all but absent from history" and "nothing…before the 18th century."

  • Judith Shakespeare Metaphor:

    • An example of a talented woman who could not fulfill her potential, portrayed as frustrated, pregnant, and ultimately suicidal (see pp. 35-37).

  • Genius and Class:

    • Woolf posits that “genius like Shakespeare’s is not born among labouring, uneducated, servile people…It is not born today among the working classes” (36).

Social Structure and Women's Genius

  • Inhibiting Factors: Social structure and ideology combine to inhibit women’s intellectual development and acceptance as writers, a struggle that even persisted into 1928.

  • Marginalization of Talented Women: Women with talent had often been labeled as “witches" and described as:

    • "gone crazed, shot herself"

    • “lost her health and sanity” due to “violence and suffering” (37).

  • Anonymous Writing: Many women wrote anonymously into the 19th century, masking their talents and subscribing to the prevailing notion of male genius (37).

  • Concept of Genius: Defined by Woolf as a mind that is "incandescent" with no obstacles, where “no foreign matter [desire to preach, protest, avenge, etc.] unconsumed” and flows “free & unimpeded” like Shakespeare (42).

Challenges for Women Writers

  • Woolf highlights the practical challenges women faced when writing:

    • “If a woman wrote, she would have to write in the common sitting-room. And…women never have a half hour…that they can call their own – she was always interrupted. Still, it would be easier to write prose and fiction there than to write poetry or a play. Less concentration is required” (66).

Key Quotes from Woolf

  • "Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size" (35).

  • "Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own" (108).