Review: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

Summary:

A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled "Women and Fiction", and hence the essay, are considered non-fiction. The essay is generally seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.

 

My opinion: 

Of course I loved this essay! It's all about feminism with some shocking facts as well. It talks about the first feminists authors like Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, but also about the life as a female back then as well. She explained that women got seperated from men, women weren't allowed being alone for more than half an hour and that women never got the opportunity to go to school, so they weren't able to write.

She talked about so much more as well. She basically said that women and men aren't that different and that we should use woman-manly and man-womanly which I totally agree with!

 

I highly recommend this short novel/essay to everyone who wants to learn about feminism (so many people have the wrong definition about it these days) or just want to read about it, because it was really, really good!

 

Have you read A Room of One's Own and did your opinion about feminsm change after reading it, or did you already agree with her?