4. Voices for and against “A Room of One’s Own”
Political Discourse PAPER 2 desembre 10th, 2010When we read a book of these characteristics, we can expect a strong criticism. These kinds of writings don’t allow a poor or an ambiguous critique. Either they are very well accepted by some, or they are completely hated by others. It can be easy for us to think that, at the time Virginia Woolf wrote these impressions, or even nowadays, male chauvinists could be furious.
If we had to catalogue or consider the people that would be part of one side or the other, we could mention women in general, as we have seen in our previous section, this writing was very important with the Women’s Liberation Movement. Also, LGTB groups could agree with A Room of One’s Own. Virginia Woolf was and still is considered a lesbian by ones and a bisexual by others. Even her nephew, Quentin Bell, assured that his aunt had a relationship with Vita Sackville-West. All these factors enlarge the sympathy of the LGTB groups towards the writer and her work.
Nonetheless, the book has also received negative criticism. The example that we give here is the argumentation carried out by Alice Walker, an African American author and poet. Walker criticised Woolf’s work for excluding black women, or women who couldn’t get that sought room by any means. She mentions the example of Phillis Wheatley.
Our point of view in this field is that not all the situations can apply to the same topic. We cannot mix Woolf’s desires in the 20th century, with an Afro American slave girl from the 18th century. However, this doesn’t mean that we don’t take into account Walker’s words. In fact, this can be a great topic to debate; how life conditions make women choose or desire some types of things (in the case of Phillis Wheatley: freedom) that, for others, in another time or place; are completely essential to live or have a different meaning (in the case of Woolf, freedom would be acquired through having a private space).
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