The Scope of Woolf’s Feminism in A Room of One’s Own Essay

The Scope of Woolf’s Feminism in A Room of One’s Own Missing Works Cited A highly contested statement on women and fiction, Virginia Woolf’s extended essay A Room of One’s Own has been repeatedly reviewed, critiqued, and analyzed since its publication in 1929. Arnold Bennett, an early twentieth-century novelist, and David Daiches, a literary critic who wrote an analysis entitled Virginia Woolf in 1942 (Murphy 247), were among those to attempt to extricate the themes and implications of Woolf’s complex essay. The two critics deal with the often-discussed feminist aspect of Woolf’s essay in interestingly different ways. Bennett states that Woolf’s essay is not a feminist work, rejects the idea that Woolf’s discussion of women and†¦show more content†¦As Professor Wendy Nicholson said in her lecture on A Room of One’s Own, at the period in which Woolf was writing, feminism, by popular definition, meant wanting the vote for women. This is certainly not Woolf’s brand of feminism; having received the news of her inheritance at the same time as women won the vote, Woolf wrote that â€Å"of the two-the vote and the money-the money, I own, seemed infinitely more important† (Woolf 37). But although such matters as the vote are an important part of feminism, the word has evolved to embrace many non-political beliefs. Indeed, during Woolf’s time, there was a strong feminist movement outside of the political sphere, but the common conception was that feminists were only interested in the vote. In the most general sense, today’s definition of feminism is simply the belief in securing equal rights and opportunities for women. That women should be allowed equal opportunities to write fiction is the thesis of Woolf’s essay. Though her thesis is confined to fiction and does not extend into any other facet of society, the idea is feminist by this broader, more recent definition. In Bennett’s time, however, when the words â€Å"feminist† and â€Å"suffragist† were considered synonyms, Woolf’s blatant nonchalance about women’s suffrage may have been considered no t only non- feminist, but anti- feminist. ArnoldShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Alice Walker s Search Of Our Mother s Gardens Essay1910 Words   |  8 Pagesincluding ‘In Search of our Mother’s Gardens’ is an expression of her thoughts and ideas on the subject of black history and with it explores racism, oppression, slavery, self-identity, freedom, enlightenment and independence. She writes about the scope of her history as a black woman, both personally and through the past experiences of her ancestors. In an interview with John O’Brien, when asked what determines her interests as a writer she responded stating â€Å"I am preoccupied with the spiritual survivalRead MoreThe Hours - Film Analysis12007 Words   |  49 PagesThe Suicide of the Author and his Reincarnation in the Reader: Intertextuality in The Hours by Michael Cunningham Andrea Wild In his novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham weaves a dazzling fabric of intertextual references to Virginia Woolfs works as well as to her biography. In this essay, I shall partly yield to the academic itch to tease out the manifold and sophisticated allusions to the numerous intertexts. My aim, however, is not to point out every single reference to Woolf and her works--suchRead More Feminism Essay1813 Words   |  8 Pages Both Virginia Woolf, in a speech addressing a graduating all women class, and Naomi Wolf, in her text The Beauty Myth, contemplate feminism from an economic viewpoint. While Woolf believes women need money and a room of their own to have economic independence, Wolf gives credence to the fact that the beauty industry is hindering the independence of women. Through male pomposity, the conventional lives of women, obsession with physical appearance, and the reality that beauty is diverse, both