Back to AROO Page Study Questions 2: A Room of One’s Own
Mark Hussey’s section on Modernism (Woolf A-Z) says that while people disagree on definitions of modernism, “all at least agree that the term refers to the early twentieth century as a time of artistic and literary experimentation” (163). Some features of Modernism might include:
· bending genre boundaries (e.g., novel/poem, poem/essay)
· the narrative technique called “stream of consciousness” as a means of getting at inner reality, “the flickerings of that innermost flame” (Woolf “Modern Fiction”)
· questioning authority, convention, and belief in such verities as Truth, or even the fixity of time.
Consider what features of AROO might be distinctively Modern in these three respects. Look for specific passages that seem to fit the definition of "stream of consciousness" and examine what the technique accomplishes. She almost immediately announces that she will develop her argument about money and a room of one's own by "develop[ing] in your presence as fully and freely as I can the train of thought which led me to think this" (4). Compare the way she time travels on p 9, 10, and 12, even changing the season from autumn to spring on p 16 (even while saying she won't), to the way she explores the fictitious Mary Carmichael's new novel Life's Adventure (chapter 5). What is the roll of imagination in Woolf's narrative technique?
Woolf and Feminism
"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute." -- Rebecca West, 1913
Woolf uses the term “feminist/feminism” only twice in AROO, both times in reference to Rebecca West, a popular novelist of Woolf’s day (1892-1983), both times disparagingly, “arrant feminist” (35) and “arrant feminism” (58). Yet most modern critics regard AROO as the first important document in modern feminist criticism, laying the groundwork for much that was to come. Review some modern definitions of “feminism," and consider whether Woolf’s position in AROO fits any of them. Attempt to construct a definition of “feminism” that would describe Woolf’s stance here. Ignore whether she would agree to call it “feminist” or not. In Three Guineas [1939] she argues for moving beyond a need for the term and wants to burn it. See AROO, bottom of p. 40, for a similar reference to a future time when even the term “woman” as the “protected sex” will have disappeared. See especially p. 82 (Chloe and Olivia); p. 93, writing as a woman who has forgotten she is a woman; p. 96, the taxicab scene; p. 98 Shakespeare’s androgyny; and p. 111, do not try to be superior or inferior, be yourself.
Even though Woolf explicitly states that the “I” in her narrative “is only a convenient term for somebody who has no real being” (4), and even names her narrator Mary Beton (sometimes Mary Seton), she delivered the original version as lectures, she begins and ends the book in her own person, and she refers frequently to specific events that occurred in her own life. For example, she did dine with friends at Cambridge, she did have an aunt who died and left her a legacy, although Woolf’s aunt left her £100 a year, not the £500 that her narrator’s aunt left her. What is the effect of this pseudo-autobiographical format? Why do you think Woolf chooses to make her argument in this way, rather than as straight expository writing, using the facts of her own life? See especially p. 99 ff. about the shadow of the letter “I.”