virginia woolfs vision
Almost sixty-five years have lapsed sinee Virginia Woolf spoke at Newnham and Girton colleges on the subjectof women and fiction. Her remarkable words are preserved for future generations of women in A Room of One'sOwn. This essay is the "first manifesto of the modern feminist movement" (Samuelson), and has been called "anotable preamble to a kind of feminine Declaration of Independence" (Muller 34). Woolf writes that her modestgoal for this ground-breaking essay is to "encourage the young women--they seem to get fearfully depressed"(qtd. in Gordon xiv). This treatise on the history of women's writings, reasons for the scarcity of great womenartists, and suggestions for future literary creators and creations accomplishes far more than simple inspiration andmotivation for young writers. Woolf questions the "effect . . . poverty [has] on fiction" and the "conditions . . .necessary for the creation of works of art" (25), and she persuasively argues that economics are as important astalent and inspiration in the creative process. She emphatically states and, with brilliant fiction, supports herthesis that every woman "must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (4)
Twayne's English Authors Series 243. Judithsymbolizes countless brilliant, talented women who have been unable to express their genius because of society'sprejudice. As Woolf recalls ancient tales of witches and possessed women, and suggests perhaps they were "lostnovelist[s]," or "suppressed Poet(s)," or "some mute and inglorious Jane Austen"(49), her calm, unruffledpersona begins to fray. A truly great writer will be comfortable with her ownfemininity, and will write without the consciousness that she is writing as a woman. The clarityof mind evidenced in Woolf's examples of creative genius, William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, requires that theartist be insulated from the stresses and trials of an uncertain life.
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Acceptance Essays
