Live in the reality

江漢藝術職業學院 湖北 潛江 433100

Abstract：In the history of human civilization，there has been extensive concern on feminism.Over the past three decades，this topic has become more and more popular.Although considerable research has been devoted to cultural feminism，rather less attention has been paid to feminist writing.So now，the present author likes to do some discussion on this area——feminist writing.The aim of the present paper is to analyze a book which written by the famous feminist writer Virginia Woolf，observe the hidden character of the author.

Key words：women；feminist writing；reality；self-liberation

A Room of Ones Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf.First published on 24 October 1929，the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College，two womens colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928.While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction，the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures，titled“Women and Fiction”，which was published in Forum March 1929，and hence the essay，are considered non-fiction.The essay is generally seen as a feminist text，and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by men.

The title of the essay comes from Woolfs conception that，“a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”.Woolf notes that women have been kept from writing because of their relative poverty，and financial freedom will bring women the freedom to write；“In the first place，to have a room of her own...was out of the question，unless her parents were exceptionally rich or very noble”.The title also refers to any authors need for poetic licence and the personal liberty to create art.

Woolfs father，Sir Leslie Stephen，in line with the thinking of the era，believed that only the boys of the family should be sent to school.Woolf encouraged the image of herself that，because her father did not believe in investing in the education of his daughters，she was left without the experience of formal schooling.However，recent discoveries in the archive of Kings College London show that Virginia and her sister Vanessa attended Kings College Londons Womens Department for classes in Greek and German over a number of years.In delivering the lectures outlined in the essay，Woolf is speaking to women who have the opportunity to learn in a formal，communal setting.Woolf lets her audience know the importance of their education at the same time warning them of the precariousness of their position in society.

“You should live in the reality.”Most of time，people taught us like this.However，sometimes we are confused by the exact meaning of reality.Here is a definition which was revealed in Virginia Woolfs diary，she has defined her deeper purpose as a writer as the attempt to catch the fleeting vision of “reality”：

a thing I see before me ，something abstract；but residing in the downs or sky ；beside which nothing matters；in which I shall rest and continue to exist .Reality I call it .And I fancy sometimes this is the most necessary thing to me：that which I seek ...Now perhaps this is my gift；this perhaps is what distinguishes me from other people ：I think it may be rare to have so acute a sense of something like that...I would like to express it too.

It is as if in the pursuit of her own inner reveries or of the singing of the real world，her characters almost entirely stop talking to one another，or at least that talk is beside her point.However，women are now no longer restricted to domestic life；they are entering the professions and political life，and these experiences must also be recorded and the social conditions obstructing them criticized.

A Room of Ones Own is about the conditions in the habitable world that prevent or enable a woman to escape from that world into the solitude of creative work.This is why the book has such an air of paradox about it.The first two thirds of the book are concerned with the habitable world of the aspiring woman write.

Fiction is like a spiders web，attached ever so lightly perhaps ，but still attached to life at all four corners...These webs are not spun in mid-air by incorporeal creatures，but are the work of suffering human beings，and are attached to grossly material things ，like health and money and the houses we live in （RO43）.

In A Room of Ones Own it is the part of her that researched the lives of women writers such as Lady Winchilsea and Margaret of new castle，and which imagined the lethal conditions in which Judith Shakespeare would have been forced to live and die.Especially she imagines Mary Carmichael，a woman novelist，wanting to explore in fiction the lives of contemporary women.She will most likely want to thrown the main emphasis upon her women characters at work，perhaps in a laboratory；and them in relation with each other.Women have before only been portrayed in their relation to men，but they do also befriend and love one another，and these relationships are part of the dark country which needs to be explored .In “profession for women”her definition of the problem is a little different .A women writer must be free to tell the truth，and she has been prevented from telling the truth by rules which have prohibited her from throwing light upon certain areas of her experience.These rules are internalized and the woman writers reach into her own unconscious mind is obstructed by them .The great problem for the woman writer now is to learn how to overcome these obstacles so that she can tell the truth about her passion and about her body.Later she concluded at last of the book：

When I rummage in my own mind I find no noble sentiments about being companions and equals and influencing the world to higher ends.I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else.

Conclusion：In this paper，feminist writing is studied.Besides，the character of feminist writer has analyzed.After reading this paper，you can get a general idea about the concept of feminist writing and something else about it.However，the limitations of this paper are clear，thanks to my knowledge and limited information，there are some defects in it.I believe more and more researches will be done in this field.

Bibliography：

[1]Warner，Eric，Virginia Woolf.A centenary perspective[M].London：Macmillan Press，1984.

[2]Marsh，Nicholas，Virginia Woolf.The Novels[M].London：Macmillan Press，1998.

[3]Maze，John R，Virginia Woolf.Feminism，Creativity，and the Unconscious[M].Westport：Greenwood Press，1997.

作者簡介：

梅娟（1981—），女，漢族，江漢藝術職業學院英語教師，講師，研究方向：職業教育，英語教學法。