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INTRODUCTION
It's often useful to begin an intellectual activity by considering the expectations and presumptions that one brings to it. This might be thought of as an exploration of what the philosopher Heidegger calls the "vorhaben" - what one has and brings [e.g., to a discussion] before one begins.
We can begin our discussion of Virginia Woolf on Women and Fiction by thinking about what sorts of things are of interest.
What is it that grabs your attention about Virginia
Woolf on Women and Fiction?
What kinds of things do you hope to find out regarding this subject and why do you want to
find them out?
In intellectual activity, it's always useful to ask "Who cares?" with regard to any question.
Why or how do we care about Virginia Woolf on Women and Fiction?
Name: Steve Thomas, Miami
Date: 12 Mar 1998
Time: 11:05:51
As I came of age during the modern feminist movement, I tended to think of the pre-feminist period in a monolithic manner. But as I studied history and learned of earlier feminist movements I became very interested in those earlier periods. As Virginia Woolf is a representative of that period I would like to probe into her life and struggles and ideas and art.
Also, I grew up on very traditional classic fiction, I found it difficult to understand modern writing. I'm on a quest to get a better understanding and appreciation of it. I have started reading "A Room of One's Own" in the last couple days and I'm enjoying the feel of it.
Name: mohammad
Date: 3/2/2002
Time: 2:17:46 PM
Name: Saira Dogar
Date: 8/25/2002
Time: 5:22:31 AM
Only last year I was in the University of Sussex and at this time of the year last year I was giving finishing touches to my dissertation on the issue of household and the spce a house affords to women in Woolf's and Mansfield's writing. My interest still remains in the ways in which Woolf persents facets of feminine self.
Some of the ways that we might care about Virginia Woolf:
- as a twentieth century novelist, perhaps especially as an early employer and expositor of modern fiction techniques, such as "stream of consciousness;"
- as the developer of a distinctly feminist perspective on both the situation of women in general and on its reflection in literature;
- as a literary critic;
- as a part of intellectual history, particularly as a member of the Bloomsbury group.
One might also be interested in Virginia Woolf's personal life, including, perhaps especially, its tragic elements, but also her marriage to Leonard Woolf, and her relationship with Vita Sackville-West.
The inter-relation of these subjects is of further interest.
Two ways that Women and Fiction might grab one's attention as a subject are:
- considering it as an object of history - both the social history of women and the history of literature by women;
- considering it as a vehicle for exploring how gender affects perspective, especially in literature.
What are some other reasons why Women and Fiction might be of interest?
Name: HASBI
Date: 10 Mar 1998
Time: 17:02:30
Name: Elizabeth Power
Date: 29 Apr 1998
Time: 17:06:27
I am writing about how Virginia Woolf's life reflected on her work. I would be happy to receive any tips or information that could be of help. Thank-You.
Name:
Date: 14 Jul 1998
Time: 16:43:51
Name: L. Danielle Steele
Date: 31 Jul 1998
Time: 19:47:30
I believe that Woolf is using her topic "women and Fiction" as a facade to offer a reason for the barriers places upon women. Fiction is the mode which mankind uses to often better himself by learning from the theme or message of the story. Without the female perspective being presented in fiction, how are women supposed to better themselves? When men inadvertantly prevent women from writing, they are inadvertantly erasing an entire aspect of history. Fiction stands for much more than a story, it the is history of humanity.
Name: L. Danielle Steele
Date: 31 Jul 1998
Time: 19:56:00
I believe that Woolf is using her topic "women and Fiction" as a facade to offer a reason for the barriers places upon women. Fiction is the mode which mankind uses to often better himself by learning from the theme or message of the story. Without the female perspective being presented in fiction, how are women supposed to better themselves? When men inadvertantly prevent women from writing, they are inadvertantly erasing an entire aspect of history. Fiction stands for much more than a story, it the is history of humanity.
LIFE AND WORK
Look over the Chronology of Virginia Woolf's life, her Family Tree, and the Bibliography of her writings.
How would you characterize Virginia
Woolf's family background?
Are there aspects of her life that are particularly of interest?
Do you notice any patterns with respect to her writings?
Some elements of Woolf's early life:
Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882 in London, the third child of Leslie Stephen and Julia Duckworth Stephen. The marriage between Leslie and Julia was the second for both. Her siblings were Vanessa, with whom she remained close throughout her life and Thoby, who died unexpectedly at the age of 25.
INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF HER FATHER:
Woolf's father, Leslie Stephen was a relatively distinguished literary figure, the author of a number of critical, biographical, and philosophical works, including History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century and The Science of Ethics. Visitors to the Stephen household included Thomas Hardy and Henry James; James Russell Lowell was Virginia's godfather.
In later years, Woolf would recall how her father would take his hat and his stick, and "calling for his dog and his daughter," would go out walking with her.
Some of her recollections of her father's views include that:
- one should always "read what one liked because one liked it; never pretend to admire what one did not;"
- one should "write in the fewest possible words, as clearly as possible, exactly what one meant."
Toward the end of her life, Woolf would observe that "the art of writing had been absorbing since I was a little creature, scribbling a story in the manner of Hawthorne on a green plush sofa in the drawing room."
FAMILY ILLNESS AND DEATH:
- Laura, a daughter from her father's first marriage, was judged to be "insane," but was kept part of the family, often startling the other children;
- J.K. Stephen experienced a head injury during his 20's and became increasingly demented until his death six years later. During this period (between Virginia's fourth and tenth years) he developed an extreme passion for Virginia's step-sister, Stella Duckworth, and would often invade the Stephen home in pursuit of Stella;
- Julia Stephen, Virginia's mother, died in 1895, when Virginia was thirteen. A few week later, Virginia had her first serious mental breakdown.
- George Duckworth - the oldest of her mother's children from her first marriage - was fourteen years Virginia senior. There is some indication that he sexually abused Virginia when she was six years old.
- Leslie Stephen died in 1904, following a decade of excessive and often histrionic mourning for his wife.
EDUCATION:
- Because of her health, Virginia was educated at home; she studied a wide range of subjects, including Greek, with private tutors.
BLOOMSBURY:
In 1904, following the death of Leslie Stephen, Vanessa, Thoby, Adrian, and Virginia rented a house together in Bloomsbury Square, a literary district. Thoby introduced several of his Cambridge friends to Virginia who began meeting at the Stephen house to discuss ideas and literature.
Members of this "Bloomsbury Group" included novelist E. M. Forster, economist John Maynard Keynes; poet and biographer Lytton Strachey; and art critic Clive Bell.
In 1905, Virginia began writing literary reviews.
In 1906, Thoby died.
In 1907, Vanessa married Clive Bell, and Virginia and Adrian moved to a nearby house.
MARRIAGE
Leonard Woolf was a friend of Thoby's at Cambridge and he first met Virginia and Vanessa at Thoby's rooms at the university. He described them as "the most Victorian of Victorian young ladies" whose beauty "literally took one's breath away," but with eyes that had "a look of great intelligence, hypercritical, sarcastic, satirical."
In 1904, Leonard went to Ceylon to take civil service post.
In 1911, he returned and his relationship with Virginia began.
They were married in 1912.
HOGARTH PRESS
Founded by Leonard and Virginia in 1917, among those published were W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Sigmund Freud, Chekov and Tolstoy.
DIARY
Virginia Woolf began writing what would later be published as her Diaries in 1918.
A WRITER'S DIARY: 1918
The entries in the first year (1918) of A Writer's Diary reveal Woolf's interest in the process of creating fiction, and especially its impediments. It's interesting to note the balance from the outset in her observations regarding gender issues (e.g., that both male and female writers are capable of misperceiving the opposite sex, and that writing can have greatness even if its creator is impeded by a limited vision of women).
What sort of writer would you expect Virginia Woolf to be based on how she sees the creative process? Keep your answer in mind as you read further in the Diary.
Some of the ideas presented in the 1918 entries:
"MEN AND WOMEN"
Before moving to the final discussion topic, the opening of A Room of One's Own, briefly consider a book review, written by Virginia Woolf in1920, entitled "Men and Women."
Elements that can be noted include:
- the capacity of fiction to provide a view of women unavailable anywhere else;
- the inability of great male writers to accurately portray women ("some are plainly men in disguise; others represent what men would like to be, or are conscious of not being ...")
- the difficulty that both male and female writers have in portraying the opposite sex ("Rochester is as great a travesty of the truth about men as Cordelia is about women.")
Woolf expresses the belief that the full "emancipation" and "evolution" of women will take generations and that it requires "the simultaneous emancipation and evolution of man."
A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN
We can begin our consideration of A Room by looking with some care at the opening sentence.
What are some implications of they way that the work begins?
At the outset, Woolf speaks of the different meanings that might attach "women and fiction."
Are there other meanings also?
Woolf claims that in this work she will only "offer you an opinion upon one minor point - a woman must have money and a room of her own to write fiction"; and she gives as her plan for the work an exposition of "how I came to this opinion about the room and the money."
What sort of work would one expect in light of such a plan?
Add your thoughts to an ongoing discussion!
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