Virginia Woolf Publishes a Room of One’s Own
1929
By Unknown author - Harvard University library, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.…
Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882. She was a self educated, curious, witty, and sexually liberated (bisexual) person. Although she was very accomplished she often dealt with bouts of depression, particularly after finishing a book. Woolf vehemently believed women's perspectives should be included in literature, education, and literary conversations. "A Room of One's Own," published in 1929, is an essay that critiques male centered academic institutions for oppressing and excluding women. Woolf advoated for the idea that literature should reflect an "androgynous mind" in order to reflect equality. Woolf tragically drowned herself in 1941 because the threat of Nazis invading England during World War II--her husband, Leonard Woolf was jewish.
Greenblatt, Stephen. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Twentieth and Twenty First Centuries. 11th ed., vol. F, W.W. Norton and Company, 2024.