Blog Post #3

In this unit, Virginia Woolf introduced us to the idea of “a room of one’s own.” To write, she argues, a writer needs a quiet space and a small amount of money to live off. It is a simple request, but one she says has been historically and systematically denied to women in English. Her reasons are several, they include: the need for domestic and reproductive work (housekeeping, childbearing) the presumption of feminine intellectual incapacity, and a pattern of violence and abuse against female bodies. I would argue that other writer we have read might also be see as working with or challenging Woolf’s basic topic: the need for a private, secure, comfortable space to write from. Do you agree? Where do you see Woolf’s ideas appear in The Yellow Wallpaper, Borderlands, or the short stories of Leslie Marmon Silko? Do these writers agree with Woolf’s thesis? Or do they challenge her claims? Please express your answer by interpreting a passage from one of the writers from this unit.