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Updated January 20, 1998
Created January 20, 1998
What are some key critical issues for studying A Room of One’s Own?
· Historical and biographical context, especially the November 1928 obscenity trial over Radclyffe Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness (see Rosenman) and negative comments about women writers, as in Woolf’s feud with novelist Arnold Bennett (see her "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" 1924) and her friend Desmond McCarthy (see Reid 319).
· Revisionist readings that emphasize the political element, especially Marxist and lesbian (see Marcus "Still Practice").
· Woolf’s technique as essayist (see especially Fernald).
· Connections to other texts, especially Orlando (Boehm; Thompson), but also To the Lighthouse (Burt), The Waves (Schwartz), and Three Guineas (Marcus "Liberty").
· Textual criticism based on a newly discovered manuscript (Rosenbaum).
· Its relevance to modern feminism (see especially Marcus "Bull" and Stimpson).