Answer ONE of the following questions with 200-250 words:
1) Conventional wisdom tends to lead us to assume that art belongs to a certain abstract and transcendental realm that is detached from life and the concrete conditions of its production. How does Woolf subvert this kind of belief in A Room of One's Own?
2) How does Woolf complicate the idea/tradition of fiction writing and of history making, which used to be considered as gender-neutral in the history of humanity?
3) Why does Woolf assert that "It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple"? Why does she insist that "one must be woman-manly or man-womanly" (2489)? What author or authors illustrate this kind of androgynous mind for Woolf, and why?
66 comments:
Mia 49902028
I chose the first question to answer.
Virginia Woolf thinks that having luxurious lunch in Oxbridge can inspire brilliant ideas; on the other hand, Mary inspires nothing when she has unpleasant food at dinner in Fernham. So she concludes that “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” I think so, because it is difficult to make any great piece when you are eating something unsavory. You will feel unhappy and awful about it for a long time, and all your thoughts and mind will change.
Also, in comparison with men and women, women spent all their lives to bear and raise children, and men had fewer obstacles and independent wealthy in the past. There was no time for a woman thinking of creations after she was so tired and exhausted, and she must get married because she can’t earn money on her own. Like Shakespeare’s sister, she had great genius like Shakespeare, but she wouldn’t be successful like Shakespeare. If the different destinies of women and men had been decided, how could they change their destined lives?
Therefore, art is based on life and the concrete conditions of its production. It is important to have your own life, and self-room, which represents economic independence and freedom, and represent you can be an individual, not another sex’s slave. Then create your own art without any obstacles.
Eunice 410002005
2. ‘’Room’’ is not only a symbol for writing space and leisure but also the independence, freedom and mind. Women don’t even have their own room to write and how do they have the foothold on the society? In ‘’A Room of One’s Own’’, the narrator encountered many obstacles when visiting Oxbridge. And I think that is also the symbol of the difficulties that women have had for a long time. She tried to find some information about female scholars in the library but she only discovered that there was even very little information about women’s daily live. What she found were the statements written by male scholars and often in the angry way to criticize women for keeping women in ‘’women’s place’’, which is usually the responsibility to hold the family and teach kids. It reveals that women’s literature achievement, freedom was restricted. From this, readers should think and question whether it is gender- neutral or not in history and in our society and even in humanity. Is it objective enough when literature and history are made by men?
Besides,Virginia Woolf uses a good illustration to describe the difficulties as a woman will face. The tragic figure, Judith Shakespeare is the representative of talented female writers, showing that having talent is not enough to write. If women can’t be financial independent women will be hard to get rid of being second-class citizen.
Mario 49902064
I would like to answer question number 3. In the story “A Room of One’s Own” The “androgyny mind” is a mind about the equal parts of male and female, which Virginia Woolf trying to encourage the people to know the differences between the genders. About the third sex that Virginia Woolf had talk about is not about Gay but she is describing the women can live like men and wear like men. It also representing a pure vessel for thought that inspires the most objective and creative relationship with reality. The foundations of Virginia Woolf’s androgyny about sexual liberalism can be found in nineteenth and early twentieth century. An androgynous mind has been pop up when Virginia Woolf begins in admitting about the gender’s difference and it has been straining. The gender is being consciousness hampers in her life. And she seem became the feminist, who criticism about women’s abilities and rights. However, Virginia Woolf constantly restrains herself by encourages this differentiation to show the blind spot of the two genders. She also contends that the sexes are dependent on each other to renew creative power. At the same time Virginia Woolf also asking for the womanly needs.
Aere 49902056
3)
Virginia Woolf believes that men and women are pretty different, and they should not try to act like one another. However, she also insists “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly” Perhaps she thinks it is disadvantage that there is no pioneer of female writers, so those creations of masculine style might affect women’s writing forms (But females should find their writing forms). Virginia Woolf thinks a mind that is purely masculine or feminine cannot create and which is imperfect. So, a writer’s mind with both sexes should be perfect.
She takes Coleridge’s androgynous thesis that a great mind is androgynous because the androgynous mind is resonant and porous, that it transmits emotion without impediment; that it is naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided. Such as Shakespeare and other male authors, their minds are the type of the androgynous, a man-womanly mind. They don’t think separately of sex so that in their work women have their own consciousness. On the other hand, if a mind is only masculine, there should be no growth but an obstacle which blocked the fountain of creative energy.
If we take it into mind, we might miss the side of feminine thought (especially for women); but if we take Coleridge’s, it would inspire and give birth to different ideas in our mind.
Kimlake 49902004
There are several reasons why Virginia Woolf says that “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple” and “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly.” First, writing manly or womanly seems to be great at first, but it will soon disappear and can’t last long. Second, it can’t stay in people’s minds. Third, people have to open their minds, communicate and cooperate with the masculine and the feminine minds, so that they can create good works. In addition, Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, Coleridge, and the contemporary novelist Proust are whom Virginia refers to be having androgynous minds. She remarks that they use the two minds equivalently. Among them, Coleridge says that when the two minds combine with each other, people can make the best use of them. He also says that people who have androgynous minds don’t just stand on one side. On the contrary, they can blend the two minds and employ them perfectly. When Virginia talks of Coleridge’s works, she comments that they enable readers come up with many other thoughts. She also spends many parts talking about Shakespeare. She says that since he doesn’t think the two sexes differently and respectively, his works deliver full meanings and are not harmed. His mind is thus illuminating and bright.
Kimlake 49902004
3. There are several reasons why Virginia Woolf says that “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple” and “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly.” First, writing manly or womanly seems to be great at first, but it will soon disappear and can’t last long. Second, it can’t stay in people’s minds. Third, people have to open their minds, communicate and cooperate with the masculine and the feminine minds, so that they can create good works. In addition, Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, Coleridge, and the contemporary novelist Proust are whom Virginia refers to be having androgynous minds. She remarks that they use the two minds equivalently. Among them, Coleridge says that when the two minds combine with each other, people can make the best use of them. He also says that people who have androgynous minds don’t just stand on one side. On the contrary, they can blend the two minds and employ them perfectly. When Virginia talks of Coleridge’s works, she comments that they enable readers come up with many other thoughts. She also spends many parts talking about Shakespeare. She says that since he doesn’t think the two sexes differently and respectively, his works deliver full meanings and are not harmed. His mind is thus illuminating and bright.
3. Virginia Woolf thinks you can’t deeply think a lot of aspects of things if you just be a man or woman simple and pure because you only think things from one hand and don’t stand in others shoes. Then you will write anything with conscious bias and can’t write with a correct attitude. A well work, it should be able to grow in the minds of others and make others actively echo your thoughts. On the other hand, if you write works with conscious bias then the book is fatal and doomed to death because you can’t narrate things in a justice and fair attitude. Besides, Woolf also thinks we should be woman-manly or man-womanly. In other word, she thinks we should have an androgynous mind. The androgynous mind is resonant and porous so it is easier to transmit your emotion without impediment than single-sexed mind. In addition, androgynous mind is creative, undivided and incandescent because it can abandon some prejudice or bias and narrate something from different angles. Then that can make readers feel reliable and reasonable not just describe thing only from one hand. And Shakespeare is a good example that illustrates the androgynous mind. In his works, he doesn’t think specially or separately of sex. In that time, most people write works from men’ perspective, but he doesn’t. That is why Woolf says he has an androgynous mind.
I choose to answer question 3.
Woolf asserted that ‘’It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple’’ because she thought that the normal situation of men and women was living harmony together, spiritually cooperating. If someone is a man, the woman part of his brain must have effect. In contrast, if in a woman’s brain, the woman must interchange the man in her. Besides, Coleridge said that a great brain is ‘’androgynous.’’ No matter you are a man or a woman, you can’t think that you just can be your gender and be limited in typical sex perspectives. Woolf also thought a pure masculine or feminine could not be creative.
For Coleridge, he thought ‘’ androgynous mind’’ can be more resonant and porous. In addition, it also transmits emotion without obstacles and be filled with creative, purity and undivided. For example, Shakespeare, he was man-womanly and his ‘’ incandescent’’ mind is the type of the androgynous mind. Another is Mr.A, his purpose was protesting against the equality of the opposite sex. So, he became uneasy, pressured and stronger self-conscious. For these two examples, they can show that having an androgynous mind is very important for everyone. If we just think from our gender, our mind wouldn’t be open and we will be conducted by the society. Don’t be limited in your sex or you will lose your creative.
Lauren 49902024
Question 1
History uses to be written in men’s prospection, but Woolf focuses on women’s story in The Room of One’s own. History is always writing about males. On the contrast, women are ignored and forgotten time after time. They have nothing to compare with men when it talks about rights, money, privacy, and respects. Women don’t have their property, in fact, they don’t own anything but owned by men.
Woolf compares the differences between the foods in male university and female university. Males and females are treated differently and unequally. So what if they born to be the same but there is only one gender can share their talent. She starts to think about what if Shakespeare had a sister. She had the same talent as her brother but her life ended up totally different from him. She was not allow to have her own thought or ambitions. The main reason she lives is to get marry and have babies.
Then, Woolf talks about female writers in the history. It must be hard for a woman to write before because they were always being interrupted. Some of them writers with their anger, which makes their work worse than it should be. The truth is that if they can have masterpieces in such an awful writing environment, they must be extremely talented. But no one ever noticed it because we all think in men’s way. People never think about why is the amount of female writers do little. We live in a patriarchy world so we never think for women or from women’s way.
Woolf keeps think in the way we don’t used to think. She points out the difficulties that female writers can face and males would never have the same experiences. For so many years we are reading history, but Woolf creates a ‘herstory’. ‘Herstory’ only talks about women, sees through their eyes about things, and totally ignores men’s.
410002003 Amy SUN
Question NO.3
Answer:
I think that Woolf asserts "It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple", this means if you are a woman, everything follows the rule of traditions, and be an elegant and tender woman who does the household in home (just like Woolf’s mother, the Angel in the house). And then become ordinary person and doesn’t have any own mind. This condition to female writer is dangerous, if you have no mind and no creativity; this would reflex to your own writings, and become a normal woman, and then has no opportunity to have “a room of one’s own”. On the contrary, if you are a complete man (just like men of Victorian era, autocratic person), then your mind will be narrowed, so I think that just reflects to “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly”.
Therefore, to have androgynous mind is important, especially in writing; in her essay “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf said an ideal writer shouldn’t to think separately of sex, just like two genders in your mind. And she also mentioned a female writer who is Jane Austen and represented her writing is "without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching” just like William Shakespeare to be "naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided”. Although Bronte perhaps was more genius than Jane, but Woolf thought that she brought too much personal emotion in her writings.
I’d like to answer question 3.
Virginia Woolf believes that one cannot think profoundly or write well if he or she writes only with his or her one side of brain. The works which are not androgynous can’t last long. She considers that “If one is a man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her.” Coleridge said that a great mind is androgynous. Maybe a pure masculine or feminine mind cannot create. Perhaps Coleridge meant that the androgynous mind is resonant and porous, that it transmits emotion without impediment; that it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided. Also, Shakespeare’s mind is the type of androgynous, of the man-womanly mind. Shakespeare’s indecency uproots a thousand other things in one’s mind, and is far from being dull. Another example is Mr A. He was on purpose protesting against the equality of the other sex by asserting his own superiority. However, he became uneasy, oppressive and self-conscious. And about Mr Galsworthy and Mr Kipling, their woks are so deep, subtle and symbolical to a man that woman can’t understand. Their works didn’t have a spark of woman, so their geniuses are crude and immature. They lacked suggestive power.
From these examples, we could know that having an androgynous mind is important. I think it is why Virginia Woolf assert that “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly.”
Bradshaw 49902006
3. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple because he/ she can only see the advantage of his/ her own gender. In addition, he/ she will hold strong rage toward the other gender. Take Charlotte Bronte’s novel for example, she has more talent on writing than Jane Austen. However, Bronte’s writing bears the scars of her personal wounds, which also holds strong resentment to males. And, some male writers, they assert that women are weaker, in both mental and physical, than men. Why they try to do so is to prevent women sharing the rights they monopolized. The two sides, both male and female, must live harmoniously in one's mind to create effectively. The both sides must cooperate, and create the whole art of work. With an androgynous mind, a writer will be creative, incandescent, and undivided. Some of writers that Woolf mentions in the essay reached the state of mental androgyny are William Shakespeare and Jane Austen. Just like Shakespeare, Bronte’s novels are written in a way "without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching." despite her difficult situation and the fact that it was almost impossible to have female writers in her time.
Hazel 49902032
I would like to answer question one. The most obvious thing is that we could see Woolf portrays the food in different places. She compares the luxurious lunch in Oxbridge to the unpleasant dinner in Fernham. She makes a big contrast between these two scenes that were experienced by Mary, who is the main character in this novel. Woolf describes these two situations in order to point out and put emphasize to the concrete condition itself. Only if you be full with hunger satisfied or better, to have tasty meals then can you create the pieces. So, it’s the idea that conventional wisdom is not only belongs to a certain abstract and transcendental realm, but also it is based on the materials which are in everyday life.
And the other point is about women have no time or property to create their works. Society teaches women how to behave and how to become the angels in the house. The purpose in their life is only to get “married.” So, they do not have their own property while they rely on their husband. It means that they do not have the rights to do whatever they want and will be control under a system or males. Also most of their time is nursing their children. They have no time to earn their own money and even not to mention about creating pieces.
I would like to answer question one. The most obvious thing is that we could see Woolf portrays the food in different places. She compares the luxurious lunch in Oxbridge to the unpleasant dinner in Fernham. She makes a big contrast between these two scenes that were experienced by Mary, who is the main character in this novel. Woolf describes these two situations in order to point out and put emphasize to the concrete condition itself. Only if you be full with hunger satisfied or better, to have tasty meals then can you create the pieces. So, it’s the idea that conventional wisdom is not only belongs to a certain abstract and transcendental realm, but also it is based on the materials which are in everyday life.
And the other point is about women have no time or property to create their works. Society teaches women how to behave and how to become the angels in the house. The purpose in their life is only to get “married.” So, they do not have their own property while they rely on their husband. It means that they do not have the rights to do whatever they want and will be control under a system or males. Also most of their time is nursing their children. They have no time to earn their own money and even not to mention about creating pieces.
Yi-Chia Hu 49802010
2.
Virginia Woolf complicated and deconstructed this idea by her exceptional logical interpretation. At first, she presented that human’s spiritual state is intimately corresponded to our physical state; there is a close bond between the metaphysical and the physical. She then illustrated how men and women were treated unequally in the distribution of food with her fictitious visits on Oxbridge and Fernham. This reminds us of the famous saying in A Room of One’s Own: “One can not think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well” (2433). And above all the corporeal unequal, the most essential part that protects a creative mind from interference is a room of one’s own, which women at that time were deprived of. Woolf pointed out the difficulties when women would face when writing, hence deconstructed the gender-neutral idea of it. As for the history making, Virginal Woolf also unmasked the fake truth of gender fairness. History at that time was made by the dominant power in the society that the mainstream voices were from the most authoritative. The power and the authority were built upon properties, which at that time women could impossibly possess. Therefore, men naturally take complete control over the dominancy of the society, and the voices of history making. From Virginia Woolf’s evident and refined elaborate on the close link between the incorporeal and the corporeal, she showed us how the uneven distribution of social resources made fiction writing and history making gender inequitable.
Irene 49902034
I would like to answer question 3.
In my opinion, the reason why Virginia Woolf asserts that” it is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple” is because if a man just be pure and simple to think about themselves without considering women, his thought will be narrow and limited. On the contrary, if a man is able to consider women, his view will be more broad and he can become more open-minded. That is to say, it is different between men and women. The characteristic of both sexes have several advantages and disadvantages. In order to become a more perfect person, it is not enough to have the characteristic of only one sex. I think, every people no matter men or women should learn to accept every difference and become open-minded. That’s why Virginia Woolf insists that "one must be woman-manly or man-womanly". In other words, the best personality is ”woman-manly or man-womanly” which means “androgynous.”
The quote, “Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous”, we can know that Coleridge regard the androgynous mind as the great mind which has sympathy with women and transmits emotion without impediment. In addition, the other quote ,“Shakespeare’s mind as the type of the androgynous, of the man-womanly mind…” shows that Shakespeare also has androgynous mind and he claims that it does not to think separately of sex. Therefore, from my point of view, Shakespeare and Coleridge are two main authors who illustrated the androgynous mind
Question 3:
Woolf thinks that if a writer is purely a man or a woman, his or her work would be too masculine or too feminine, which is harmful to writing. According to Coleridge’s idea of an androgynous mind, Woolf says that ‘‘The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two (male and female) live in harmony together, spiritually cooperating…It is when this takes place that the mind is fully fertilised and uses all its faculties’’. Therefore, to make the mind perform its functions to extent, one’s mind must be androgynous rather than being simply manly or womanly.
Shakespeare is one of the authors who has this kind of androgynous mind. Though being a man, his mind functions man-womanly. He doesn’t limit to his own sex, and the woman part of his brain has its effect, too. In other words, his mind has both masculine and feminine qualities, and he can write without prejudice. Besides, he has consumed impediments like hatred and grievance, so his mind is pure and undivided. Having transcended the limits of sex and overcome the obstacles in mind, he is able to write in an undisturbed way, and he can have his work expressed completely.
Doris 49804003
I’d like to answer the 3rd question.
In the “Room of One’s Own”, the narrator had mentioned that “It is natural for the sexes to co-operate. One has a profound, if irrational, instinct in favour of the theory that the union of man and woman makes for the greatest satisfaction, the most complete happiness.” Through this idea, she also began to conjecture that whether there are two sexes in the mind corresponding to the two sexes in the body. Not until Coleridge said that a “great mind is androgynous, which is resonant and porous; that it transmits emotion without impredient; that it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.” did the narattor finally comprehand – one’s mind could be either man-womanly or woman-manly. Except for Coleridge, there were also lots of authors who had an androgynous mind, such as Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, and Lamp. Based on Coleridge’s discourse and accord with the topic “Women and Fiction”, Virgina Woolf drew a conclusion that it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex. Moreover, some collaboration has to take place in the mind between the woman and the man before the act of creation can be accomplished. Since people are complicated and change easily whenever they want, an adrogynous mind must be necessary for them to play different roles in their lives.
Monica W10102006
Question 1：
In Virginia Woolf’s A room of one’s own, the author said: a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. It means women must need to be economically independent and space independent. In ages of beating wife was men’s recognized right, locking daughters in a room if they denied to get married., these are realities. So she fabricated a story about Shakespeare's sister, a talented women writer’s suffer in16th century-- become an unfortunate woman. She can only be mad or committed suicide, or nowhere, surviving alone her span of life. She would never become successful as Shakespeare for she nearly had no time for writing, as she may forced to ge married, bearing and raising children, women had not private space and money. While men had fewer obstacles, higher ideas, luxurious meals, and independently wealthy. That’s why we have “history”but not “herstory”. We see luxurious lunch in Oxbridge inspires brilliant ideas when unpleasant food at dinner in Fernham inspire Mary nothing. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”-- that is the conclusion Woolf got. In this way Woolf showed Art is not a certain abstract and transcendental realm that is detached from life and the concrete conditions of its production
49902030 Angela
Question 1:
Virginia Woolf thinks that art should combine not only material things such as foods and money but also abstract idea. We cannot create something when we are starving and the intellectual freedom still needs to depend on material things. It is too hard to finish a genius pieces under bad environment. For example, compares Fernham College which only offers beef and prunes with Oxbridge which offers a flood of wine and the dessert, the difference of foods can show how women and men are treated differently. Moreover, the bad taste of foods have already influenced Mary Seton’s creative mind. The other sample also shows how important the materials are. Judith Shakespeare, the fictitious sister of Shakespeare has the same talent as Shakespeare, but without the good environment and proper cultivating, she still cannot bring her talent into full play. In the end, she is impoverished and be tortured. These two characters tell us that financial independence is important and how women and men are unequal. Men have the privilege and education right. On the contrary, women could only be confined in the house to take care of children and her husband. In conclusion, Virginia Woolf wants to convey us that we should be independence and have our own room to avoid interrupting by others. Otherwise, you can’t concentrate to complete masterpieces under public space. Also, art should base on the daily life so this is why a rooms of one’s own and financial independence are essential to women.
69902622 Michelle Lin
I choose to answer Q3.
In Virginia Woolf’s opinion, it is fatal for both male and female writers to take their own sexual places. Because in this way, the author would be constrained himself or herself in such extreme narrow-minded roles and laid his or her hands on the other sex. It is crucial that the writer cannot be too masculine or feminine. Just like Woolf notes, "Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all of its faculties." Another instance, although being a man, Shakespeare’s masterpiece is a representative of the perfect collaboration, not bragging being men nor looking down the position of women. Once someone is androgynous, woman-manly or man-womanly, one opens his or her mind and is able to absorb all the things without any prejudice, like a sponge. When someone is thinking and acting like a sponge, the act of creation can possibly be accomplished freely and peacefully.
3.
To response Virginia Woolf’s assertion “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly.” In her opinion, the normal state of human being is that the two sexes live in harmony together, spiritually cooperating. Thus, in man’s brain, the woman part must have effect on him, and so does in woman’s brain. She also quotes Coleridge’s saying that a great mind is androgynous. This kind of androgynous mind is fertilized and can use its faculties.
To emphasize her statement that a purely masculine mind cannot create, and neither can a purely feminine mind, Woolf takes Mr. Galsworthy and Mr. Kipling as examples. Both of them are the greatest living writers but fall upon deaf ears. It is because that they celebrate male virtues, enforce male values, and describe the patriarchy world. However, this emotion are permeated is to a woman incomprehensible. And these works are doomed death.
Afterwards, in her perspective Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, Coleridge, and Proust illustrate the androgynous minds for her. In her essay, Coleridge thought that the androgynous mind is resonant and porous so it can transmit emotion without impediment, and it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided. Both men and women can comprehend the works, and writers’ emotion can communicate with the readers.
Woolf thinks there live two powers, man and women, in our mind. The best state of the mind is when two cooperate with each other, and that is what Coleridge said "A great mind is androgynous. Such mind is fully fertilized because it absorbs things like a sponge; therefore, it is propitious for creative work.
On the contrary, a purely one sex mind cannot create well. It cannot express emotion without impediment. As Woolf thinks, feeling bored and dull to read Mr A's novel, he is to MAN to think with woman part of his brain. As a result, it is a mistake for a woman to read it because she will not understand the male thought in the novel. Woolf says such literature with one sex mind is immature and lack of suggestive power so it cannot grow in the minds of others. (I think she means not only the mind of the another sex, but also the mind of androgynous.) Eventually, it is doomed to death.
So Woolf argues that literature must include both sides' experience and ways of thinking so it can resonate equally with women and men.
Woolf mentions twice in chapter six that Shakespeare's mind is androgynous because he gets his work expressed completely. He creates many heroines that are full of personality and character.
Tavia 49902065
I choose the second question to answer
In a room of one’s own, there is an opinion that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. We can see that well behaved women seldom made history. Women cannot have position in the past. Virginia Woolf explains many to proof that the gender was not fair of fiction writing and of history making in the past. Women worked year after year and they earned little money. So man went to earn money and let the women stayed at home to take care of the baby and they had no right to possess what money they earned. Many books were written about women by men. Women were forbid to write book and poem. Many women wrote by using the name of a man. So woman born with a gift of poetry in the sixteenth century was unhappy. Women were impossible to have their room and money to write in the past. There has an example that about Shakespeare. He had a wonderfully gifted sister called Judith. Shakespeare is very well-known and became very successful. Judith had Shakespeare’s genius but she was remained at home. But she cannot successful like Shakespeare because she was a woman. The tradition opposed women to write poem and book. So Virginia Woolf explains the idea and tradition of fiction writing and of history making is complicate. But Virginia Woolf says that woman should be independent and have their room to write fiction. Men and women can be negotiation. Virginia Woolf also say about the androgynous mind is resonant and porous. We should be open mind create fiction to be gender-neutral and it can not only manage with one only.
Vera 49902038
I would like to answer question three.
The reason why it’s fatal being a man or woman pure and simple is if people can only see and know the advantage and disadvantage of their own gender, it will destroy their work. Being a writer need to have a subtle insight to people’s emotion and feeling. Therefore, if a writer is being a man or woman pure and simple, he/she will be unable to feel some of the most important human emotion.
And people who read the work which was written by a pure and simple man or woman can only feel their nonsense anger and fear. Woolf insist that “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly” is because that being a writer not only need the freedom of space and money but also need the freedom of mind. To get the freedom and effective mind, people need to get their two sides of mind cooperate.
Shakespeare’s several great works prove that he had an “incandescent” mind, which also means that he had the androgynous mind. Jane Austen, on the other hand, even though she never traveled and she couldn’t use the world to fulfill her inspiration, she had an androgynous and peaceful mind. Thus, Jane used what she can get and what she can feel to live and write without angry and hatred in the era. Charlotte Bronte had more talent than Jane Austen. Although we can feel Bronte’s angry and pain, the greatness part of Jane Eyre is still attracting us.
Lily 49902009
I would like to answer question 3. In The Room of One’s Own Woolf mentioned about that she believes it is natural for the sexes to co-operate. And it is possible that each individual has his/her own opposite sex in mind. When being able to combine the sexes, one can reach the perfection of the work. If one writes as a specific gender, he/she may be biased and writes from a specific point of view or a specific angle, thus creates a work that is not objective. As Woolf said, when one writes from a particular point, we will never find the answer that we’re looking for.
Without the androgyny mind, one may sees things in a certain way, writes the truth that he/she believes. But their so-called truth is incomplete and very slanted. ‘t ceased to be fertilized’. For Woolf, art and creation exists in the collision among the sexes, with hearts that are open-minded and free. Once people find the balance point between the two opposites, the art of creation can be accomplished.
She mentioned about Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, and Coleridge are all androgynous. In this essay she wrote many paragraphs about Shakespeare and Coleridge. She mentioned that Coleridge is able to convey emotions without impediment; and that androgynous mind is naturally creative and undivided.
Pansy 49902042
3)
If artists have their own position, that is, “to be a man or woman pure and simple,” it can not be objective and undivided for creating. Men own a lot of power and privileges so that they are afraid to share these things with women one day. Thus, in their works, they will be very angry to women and emphasize the superiority of men to protect the privileges they have. For example, Professor von X shows absurdly angry in his monumental work entitled “The Mental, Moral, and Physical Inferiority of the Female Sex”. He insists upon the inferiority of women to enlarge himself. However, the position of women is not good for creating works, too. Because female writers will focus on their advantages they have, ignore other important things. In these points, it is not good for a writer to create with the mind of one sex. People only to be “woman-manly or man-womanly” can create completely and perfectly.
“Androgynous mind” means neither to be a man, nor to protest against women – that is, spiritually cooperating. Having an open-mind, then the creations can transmit emotion without impediment. Like as Shakespeare’s incandescent mind is a type of the androgynous mind, it makes no obstacle for Shakespeare to create works by expressing emotion completely. This is an important reason that Shakespeare’s works become masterpieces.
Phillip 410002012
I would like to answer question 3.
It would be really fatal if someone were a pure or single man or woman. Such as, Fascism in Italia, their extremely unmitigated masculine let them to hate woman. The thought of being a pure and simple man stuck them into crisis of thinking they are superior to woman, which could cause some fatal problems in society.
And to have an androgynous mind would allow us to be more freedom inside. In our traditional society we used to hear that man should not cry easily; women should be tender; or woman should wear skirt; man should be masculine and so on. But what if a man tends to cry easily, and likes to wear skirt, others would judge him because he is not masculine enough. So to be a man-womanly or woman-manly is really important, if everybody have an androgynous mind then they would not judge others about being not masculine or not being feminine, in that case, everybody have the concept of man-womanly or woman-manly, our society would be much more diverse then now. We may be witnessing numerous men wearing skirt walking on the street without being judged.
Shakespeare’s incandescent mind could be regarded as the androgynous mind, in Shakespeare’s work there is no certain character that carry with a pure and simple symbol of a men and woman, instead most of the characters have the androgynous mind that allow the characters become much more resonant and undivided. In that case, Shakespeare’s works are far more creative and freedom.
In “A Room of One’s Own”, Woolf talks about women’s living condition which is always limited comparing with men’s. Women need to raise children and be bond to their house and family; while men can be supported and develop their career without worrying about living. Even if women don’t get married nor need to bear a child, it is still hard for them to create something and publish it because the time they were living isn’t a friendly time for creators. The world is indifferent to them. It offered not enough money, not enough privacy, even not enough endurance for creators. All they have was being opposed in different ways. Of course, due to the lower resources, women had less chance to give it a try. Woolf has a conclusion that living conditions have big connections with developing creative works. That’s why it’s hard for women to have some articles or even kinds of masterpiece during that period of time. So that Woolf says that it is very important for women to have a room of one’s own. That’s the only possibility for them to create something without bothering. Having a room of one’s own is like having privacy, freedom and time. People can consider about lots of ideas and write them down immediately. They can keep them secretly and hide them from the world which is indifferent. A room is for a person. It is a symbol of an individual mind, not a object on another.
Cindy ¬¬410002052
I would like to answer question three.
If we see things in one sexual point of view, it might cause damage to our creativity. It is fatal to be pure masculine or feminine. They will focus on single sex. Like Mr A, he protests against the equality of other sex by asserting his own superiority, so his mind of creative is to be impeded. Another thing is if the woman thinks too much on the weak side on female, It also limit the freedom of creative mind.
Then we need to be woman-manly or man-womanly. Coleridge said that a great mind is androgynous. The best statue of mind is androgynous because it is resonant and porous; it transmits emotion without impediment. Because we are open-minded, we can absorb all kinds of thing into our mind and use it. That freedom mind is fully fertilised. It is natural for the sexes to co-operate. Then the both side of mind can communicate to develop or inspire an new ideal.
Shakespeare's mind is this kind of the androgynous mind, and that mind is incandescent and undivided. Shakespeare also does not think separately of sex. Because he can expressed the emotion completely by his character, we can involve in his play and emotion easily. This mind make his work more creative.
英美碩三 69902613 李怡慧
Woolf points out that if you want to become a great writer, you must have sufficient money, time and privacy. We can see very clearly that women in that time depend completely on other people. They don’t have their own money. They can’t control their own fate. Before they get married, they depend on their family. After they get married, they depend on their husbands and all the things they have to do are to stay at home, having babies and to take care of the babies. They don’t have their own time and privacy. All their lives are dedicated to family. The main focus of their lives is to do household chores. They don’t have time to just sit there relaxedly and to develop creative thoughts because there are always things that keep interrupting them. In general, the social environment is very unfriendly to women. For example, travel is a good way to find inspirations for writers. However, since that women have to stay at home all the time; they don’t have opportunities to travel. What’s more, during certain period of time, women are not allowed to go to school. Even in later time when women can go to college, the facilities in female college are way worse than male university. For instance, the food in female college is awful and it’s difficult to for women to raise money to build a female college. In contrast, men can go to universities which their restaurants serve luxurious food and they’ll feed money back to the institutions. Money is never a problem for men and male university. Woolf argues that delicious food can inspire brilliant ideas while unpleasant food inspires nothing. All these inequalities and discrimination against women are the reasons which cause the fact that there are rare female writers. Their social statuses confine their life experiences. And the bad living environment can’t inspire great ideas. To sum up, good living condition leads to great works. If you don’t have enough money to live on, sufficient time and privacy, it is impossible for you to produce outstanding works.
老師抱歉我在貼文中忘了講我回答的是第一題^^"...謝謝!
英美碩三 69902613 李怡慧
英美碩三 69902613 李怡慧
Q1.
Woolf points out that if you want to become a great writer, you must have sufficient money, time and privacy. We can see very clearly that women in that time depend completely on other people. They don’t have their own money. They can’t control their own fate. Before they get married, they depend on their family. After they get married, they depend on their husbands and all the things they have to do are to stay at home, having babies and to take care of the babies. They don’t have their own time and privacy. All their lives are dedicated to family. The main focus of their lives is to do household chores. They don’t have time to just sit there relaxedly and to develop creative thoughts because there are always things that keep interrupting them. In general, the social environment is very unfriendly to women. For example, travel is a good way to find inspirations for writers. However, since that women have to stay at home all the time; they don’t have opportunities to travel. What’s more, during certain period of time, women are not allowed to go to school. Even in later time when women can go to college, the facilities in female college are way worse than male university. For instance, the food in female college is awful and it’s difficult to for women to raise money to build a female college. In contrast, men can go to universities which their restaurants serve luxurious food and they’ll feed money back to the institutions. Money is never a problem for men and male university. Woolf argues that delicious food can inspire brilliant ideas while unpleasant food inspires nothing. All these inequalities and discrimination against women are the reasons which cause the fact that there are rare female writers. Their social statuses confine their life experiences. And the bad living environment can’t inspire great ideas. To sum up, good living condition leads to great works. If you don’t have enough money to live on, sufficient time and privacy, it is impossible for you to produce outstanding works.
英美碩三 69902613 李怡慧
Q1
Woolf points out that if you want to become a great writer, you must have sufficient money, time and privacy. We can see very clearly that women in that time depend completely on other people. They don’t have their own money. They can’t control their own fate. Before they get married, they depend on their family. After they get married, they depend on their husbands and all the things they have to do are to stay at home, having babies and to take care of the babies. They don’t have their own time and privacy. All their lives are dedicated to family. The main focus of their lives is to do household chores. They don’t have time to just sit there relaxedly and to develop creative thoughts because there are always things that keep interrupting them. In general, the social environment is very unfriendly to women. For example, travel is a good way to find inspirations for writers. However, since that women have to stay at home all the time; they don’t have opportunities to travel. What’s more, during certain period of time, women are not allowed to go to school. Even in later times when women can go to college, the facilities in female college are way worse than male university. For instance, the food in female college is awful and it’s difficult to for women to raise money to build a female college. In contrast, men can go to universities which their restaurants serve luxurious food and they’ll feed money back to the institutions. Money is never a problem for men and male university. Woolf argues that delicious food can inspire brilliant ideas while unpleasant food inspires nothing. All these inequalities and discrimination against women are the reasons which cause the fact that there are rare female writers. Their social statuses confine their life experiences. And the bad living environment can’t inspire great ideas. To sum up, good living condition leads to great works. If you don’t have enough money to live on, sufficient time and privacy, it is impossible for you to produce outstanding works.
Wesleigh Liao 69804001
Woolf makes a valid point in her statement. Men and women are distinct in the way they think and live. They make decisions based on different ways of seeing the world. It is nature that they express their ideas in different point of views and it usually has something to do with their gender. But paying too much attention of one’s gender will affect one’s work and cause a bias within their work. Take Charlotte Brontë for instance, Woolf admired her as an intelligent author but thinks that her work is discontented because she wrote in a rage. She reflects herself into her work, Jane Eyre, telling people that she would also like to be able to see the world, strongly expressing her dissatisfaction of being a woman. Woolf therefore, suggests that only "one must be woman-manly or man-womanly" this kind of androgynous can be a great author. Androgynous that means naturally creative, incandescent and undivided. People who can think both manly and womanly can write freely, calmly and express completely without obstacle. People who have the androgynous mind create masterwork. “If ever a human being got his work expressed completely, it was Shakespeare. If ever a mind was incandescent, unimpeded, I thought, turning again to the bookcase, it was Shakespeare.” Woolf thinks Shakespeare’ incandescent mind illustrates the type of androgynous mind.
Question 1
410002008 Treer
I would like to answer the first question.
The topic of “A room of one’s own” is mainly on the relationship of women and fiction. In the essay, Virginia Woolf talked some themes about the situation of women at that time and how they could not write and create works as they wanted.
Money is one of the themes she mentioned. “Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time . . .” This quotation shows Virginia Woolf’s point of view that life and the concrete conditions have a profound influence for creating works. If women don’t have money, they can’t have a room of their own. Another quotation from the beginning of the essay, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” This indicates that if women want to create fiction, they need space to create.
The other theme is gender issue. In the essay, Virginia Woolf creates a university called Oxbridge, which is for male only. There are so many resources, including the scripts of some famous authors in the library and the meal is so nutrient. As for another female school, the meal is plain and not so nutrient, not to mention the scripts of famous authors, which are not accessible in the female school. Another reason is that women have to give birth to babies and take care of them that make women don’t have time to think and create. These situations keep women from creating works.
Helen 49902002
Question 3:
If a writer is simply a man or a woman his/her mind can not be naturally creative and incandescent. A pure man tends to claim their superiority than women; man always thinks he is primary authority as a result patriarchy depresses all women. Furthermore, a pure woman is constrained by “patriarchy” they will have many grievances so her writing can not transmit her emotion without impediment. So Woolf insists that “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly”. A woman-manly and a man-womanly means their minds are androgynous. Woolf refers to Coleridge who said that “Perhaps the androgynous mind is less apt to make these distinctions than the single-sexed mind.” Therefore, only a man or a woman who has an androgynous mind can write resonant works.
Who has this kind of androgynous mind? There are many writers who are androgynous, for example, Keats, Sterne and Coleridge and so on. According to Woolf, Shakespeare has a man-womanly mind. Although she thinks we know nothing about Shakespeare’s state of mind, we can know his grudges are totally hidden from us. Because Shakespeare doesn’t think separately of sex and his writings are not too masculine therefore he can become the greatest writer. Finally, we should remember one thing; his naturally creative and undivided mind is a key to write without impediment.
Virginia Woolf asserted that “it is fatal to be a man and woman pure and simple”. She mean no one can think correctly to write his or her own opinion. At the same time, Woolf thought that the situation is men and women living harmony in it. In male’s brain, male’s power is strength. In female’s brain, female’s power is strength. But the most comfortable state is that when the two live in harmony. Coleridge said that great mind is androgynous. No matter men and women, they should not use their brain to think things in the one state. It is because androgynous brain is naturally, creative, that it transmits emotion without impediment. It can recall Woolf‘s thought “it is fatal to be a man and woman pure and simple”. No one can deeply think things only use male brain or female brain. Woolf thought pure brain can not creative. Shakespeare’s brain is a typical androgynous brain, is a man-womanly brain. In his work, there is no character have the pure symbol of man or woman.
49908038 Joy
I would like to choose the third question to answer. There a lot of differences between female and male. Without acting like one another, Virginia Woolf hopes men and women can think deeply. If we act like men and women pure, we would not get through the entire masculine and the feminine minds. We can connect two minds perfectly and affectively. Virginia Woolf says that this condition is fatal to women, because your mind will be closed and don’t have your own thought. If women want to write well, it is quite important to make your mind creative. Virginia Woolf takes many authors as examples, such as Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb, Coleridge,etc. In Coleridge’s theory, Androgynous mind, which means each mind should have male and female elements. Coleridge says that when the two minds combine with each other, people can thin deeply, not seeing through on one side. He said androgynous mind can encourage people come up unique thoughts. Such a harmonious mind! Such a mind, would be "naturally creative, incandescent, and undivided"—like Shakespeare's. Shakespeare, he was man-womanly and his ‘’ incandescent’’ mind is the type of the androgynous mind. In conclusion, If we limited by our gender, we’ll be closed and lose our own real thought.
I would like to choose the first to answer. Literature is also a kind of art. Having a free mind will thus enable to make the intellectual freedom. However, in order to keep a free mind, if there are no substantial things like daily necessities, it will be almost hard to support our life. If people have the equal level to have their stomach full and don’t have to worry too much about how to survive, they would be able to write, to rebel, and to transcend. As I read Woolf’s works, what she shows me are also a kind of art which combine with the daily life, combine those seem trifle while we don’t know that it’s actually the most magnificent one. To think well, to love well, to sleep well… these are all depend on those corporeality. In A Room of One’s Own, what we can see the different materials and rules the different gender have and suffer. If one is not live under those traditional rules and restrictions, the things would totally change and different. The important of “economic independence“, and a space to rest and live, thus would so that having the basic ability to writing and do other activities. Still in the essay, Shakespeare’s sister, in the beginning, she might have a great talent in the field of art; however, she did not have any support and even not allow reading and writing, was forced to obey the marriage. But she escaped, but was unfortunately committed a suicide. If it were not the restrict and if she had the equal chance like Shakespeare, she would not have to be worried about how to live and what the consequences she should suffer after having a kids. The ability to survive sounds easy while tough.
I am going to answer question No.3. In my opinion, Woolf assert that “it is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple” because the person will lost his/her conscious. In order to be truly productive, the mind must contain elements of both sexes. And she insist that “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly” because she thinks that a mind that is purely feminine would be just as imperfect as a mind that is purely masculine. And we need a collaboration to take place in order to accomplish the act of creation. And this is androgynous mind, which is a mind about Virginia Woolf’s theory that aimed to offer men and women the chance to write without consciousness of their sex. If a male writer wants to talk about sex, gender and fiction, he cannot only think of his own sex. He should both consider the thoughts of male and female. On the contrary, female writer also have this kind of mind. And the creation will have its authenticity and reality. And Woolf has list some authors whom are androgynous, like Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne and Cowper and Lamb and Coleridge. It is because they used both sides of their mind equally. And therefore they can become a great writer.
410002037 Chou
I would like to take the third one question. In Virginia Woolf’s opinion, she considered that one human being have two sexes in their minds. Both somehow would cooperate with each one. However, if the writers only write for their own sex, it probably would be narrow and restricted. The prejudice would confine their mind. And made the works be distorted. That was why she said: ‘‘It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple’’. One’s characteristic is the result of both femininity and masculinity. Two combine together to make a person became more complicated and accomplished. Therefore, Virginia Woolf said: ‘‘One must be woman-manly or man-womanly’’. She mentioned Coleridge’s words: ‘‘Great mind is androgynous, and it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided’’ to state the idea of an androgynous mind. She gave several authors such as Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne and Lamp as examples to enhance her statement. Shakespeare, who thought to have an androgynous mind. The reason why his works can become the masterpiece was because the feminine mind and masculine mind cooperated to each other in his mind. It let him have large perspective and open-minded on his works. And it caused his works more flexible, polyhedral and complicated.
Judy 49902027
1)
As Conventional wisdom tends to lead us to assume that art belongs to non-everyday realm of the sublime, Virginia Woolf points out the importance of everyday detail and subvert the previous concept. When she talks about the luncheon, she says, “It is a curious fact that novelists have a way of making us believe that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something very witty that was said, or for something very wise that was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was eaten.” The details in life are usually ignored and denounced when it comes to the production of art, but actually they are essential and vital factors to art and non-everyday realm of the sublime. It seems vulgar to talk about material things like the details of food and some trifles in daily life, but in fact they are indeed important. Also, there’s a quote from A Room of One’s Own, “a good dinner is of great importance to good talk. One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Woolf writes something like salmon and ducklings, beef and prunes, and a lot about everyday detail to show us its importance. One can hardly create a great work if he or she is under indecent living conditions, and that’s the point Woolf is trying to make. With this point, she challenges the concept and the relationship between art and metaphysics.
李姵瑩 69902623
3)
In Woolf’s view, the best creative mind is one in which the “masculine” and “feminine” work in harmony. Therefore, she warns against feminist engagement: “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple.” Usually, we only see thing through one side of our brain that is form a male’s side or female’s side; nonetheless, this would constrain our way to narrate things and we would be unfair and injustice. Although different genders have certain characteristics, and they might have advantages or disadvantages, if we want to be a better person, we need to combine personal characteristics of these two genders.
In addition, the author also asserts that a good work comes from an androgynous mind and one must be woman-manly or man-womanly. Being a pure woman or man means that we lack for our own mind, and we are just like an ordinary person who is restricted by the convention; however, this is fatal especially in creating literature. A literature written either from a female’s point of view or a male’s point of view is like a plain without grass which is sterile and imperfect because a non-androgynous work would not last long. In the end, the author states that genders should not be separated instead both male and female ought to live harmoniously in one’s mind. Only through the cooperation of the mind of these two genders, can an everlasting work be created.
Celia 49902066
I would like to answer question no.1.
In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf leads us from the metaphysics to mentalism and shows that art cannot without material things such as money, foods and leisure time. For instances, she use a big contrast between the Oxbridge and Fernham, she use many description of the luxurious luncheon in the Oxbridge, and in the opposite way that the dinner was not good in Fernham. If we were hunger so how can we have the energy to do anything. Thus, she indicates that “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”. It is about psychical and physical problem from material.
In addition, history tell us “Most women have no character at all” and England is under the rule of patriarchy so how women to have their opportune to get education even writing? They just stay at home to take care of the children and be the angel in the house; they cannot get their time and way to have a creation of writing such as Judith Shakespeare even though she was as genius as her brother. There have varied result between males and females. Women have no rights and cannot own anything, women just a property by men.
Accordingly, Woolf prove that how important between material things and freedom mind from daily life in the essay. And it is the essence of art from life and the concrete conditions of its production.
Qiana
49902068
My answer is the question 3.
3) Ans. In this essay Woolf mentioned that writers should have an androgynous mind, like Coleridge and Shakespeare did. It is because single-sexed mind is much easier than androgynous mind “to takes up their cause or devotes itself to their interpretation” then become a gender bias. Thus writer who is single-sexed mind, perhaps she/he is lacking an objective point of view and that would be formed a narrow thinking mind; resulting in one of the parties cannot be fully understood. However for the androgynous mind, “it transmits emotion without impediment; it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.” This is because the content of the works can meet different gender readers, that why she insist that “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly”.
Woolf also thinks that writings should be given readers all kinds of other ideas, not only single ideas and subjective ideas in self gender; It is fatal for writings if being a man or woman purely and simply. This can be due to too self-conscious bias, and that writings are single emotion and psychology; the works would be “doomed to death”. Just as the works of Gals Worthy and Kipling, “some of the finest works of our greatest living writers fall upon deaf ears.” Those are fatal for works. The works with androgynous mind; that kind of works can be continue- “the secret of perpetual life”, rather than insisting to celebrate and enforce the virtues of one gender, because the other gender is hard to comprehend that; therefore, that kind of works cannot be continue to reader’s mind.
3.
paragraph 1:
A great writer must have an androgynous mind. Virginia Woolf cited Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s idea, which is a great mind is androgynous. She sketched a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers presided, one male, one female; and in the man’s brain the man predominated over the woman, and in the woman’s brain the woman predominated over the man. The normal and comfortable state of being was that when the two lived in harmony together, spiritually co-operating. If one was a man, still the woman part of his brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. She thought that some collaboration had to take place in the mind between the woman and the man before the art of creation can be accomplished. Some marriage of opposites had to be consummated. The whole of the mind must lie wide open if we are to get the sense that the writer is communicating his experience with perfect fullness. Anything written with that conscious bias is doomed to death. It ceases to be fertilized. So, a great writer must have an androgynous mind.
paragraph 2:
She took Shakespeare, Coleridge, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, and Lamb for examples. They have androgynous minds to become literary geniuses.(word count:212 words)
Virginia Woolf had strongly emphasized the androgynous mind. Since men and women are totally different, she asserted that "It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple," and “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly." I think it is because once we stand for a particular side, our own opinion will be influenced by the biases. For instance, if I just think and write an essay in the masculine way to judge the difference between men and women, then I will only write in bias, I cannot describe everything in the right way; only praise men but deny women. So, according to Woolf, my essay is written in consciously bias and doomed to death. Second, Virginia Woolf had mentioned that one must be woman-manly or man-womanly. Woolf praised Shakespeare, Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb and Coleridge for having androgynous mind. Woolf mentioned that the androgynous mind is resonant and porous; that it transmits emotion without impediment; that is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided. So with an androgynous mind, readers can be much easier to understand without impediments instead receive the biased information.
410002009 Phoenix Wang
Regarding to the second question, answers can be seen throughout the first to the fifth chapter.
Woolf had talked about the difficulties women writing fiction in comparison to men writing fiction. First of all, women don't have the money and the time to write to their heart's content. Writing needs money and living needs money, they would rather spent the money on living than using up paper, which is not essential in life. And money is earn by working which consumes one's time, therefore, it's even more impossible for them to find the time to write in between caring for the home and their children. Even when women are finally allowed education they were deprived of good food and the entrance pass the gates to knowledge. Secondly, it was unacceptable of the society for women to write anything except letters.
History is the story of men, it is mostly written either in their point of view or the facts are important because the male party are participants. History is not the story of all human but the "his"-story, the story of men. Anyone mentioned in history books, no matter the importance, consists almost entirely of men. We do not know anything about their female counterparts. When women are mentioned, they are depicted as inferior to men and a subject to men's abusing.
49902049 Ben
I am going to answer question 3.
I think the reason that Woolf said it is fatal for being a pure man or pure woman was because the view. If a man was fully a man, a woman was fully a woman, they cannot complementary each other, no matter for advantages or disadvantages. Men do not understand women, so they should not pretend that they know and try to write like a woman, this way is completely wrong. The same situation happens to women. If women were living under the shadow of men, such as they read what men writes, they learned what the men teaches, their point of view will certainly be affected by men. So how do we solve this problem? We have to cooperate both masculine and feminine together, then it would be the greatest work, like Shakespeare. But the society was be controlled by men, women did not have their chance like men to write, how do they show that they could be better? Woolf said that those great writers have one same characteristic, which was androgynous. It’s great to be androgynous, why? Because they will not choose side, and they have both sides advantages and disadvantages. Like critical thinking, they will do no harm to both sides and can maximize the effectiveness of writing.
Question 3:
Virginia Woolf asserts that “It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple”: She believes that in normal circumstances, both sexes should live in harmony, spiritually and mentally cooperated. Therefore, in the man’s part of the brain, woman part should have affected on him and the other way either and this is the ideal situation. If man and woman’s mind are both pure and simple, which means they won’t affect each other, things would work in different way. In this way, this person (no matter which sex you are) would be prisoning themselves in an extremely narrow-minded and limited, they would only think about themselves without considering other sex. Man would have privileges and thinks they are superior to woman, and woman would become monitory group. They would have their free will, and belong to man but themselves.
And when Woolf mentioned that “one must be woman-manly or man-womanly”, she meant that if man are able to consider woman and think in woman’s position, and woman in man’s perspective, his/her thinking would be broaden and open-minded. Man and woman are different, and both sexes have pros and cons in their characteristics. If a person wanted to own a complete mind, he/she must take both sexes into consideration. Just like Shakespeare, in his work, there is no pure man or woman, and most characters possess an androgynous mind. This was Coleridge’s concept that a great mind is androgynous. I think what makes Shakespeare a successful playwright is due to his androgynous mind.
410002019 Linda Hsu
410002007 Erica
1. “A Room of One’s Own” subverts the conventional belief that art is an abstract concept by providing contrasts between males and females in terms of wealth, education, and level of genius. With the use of this contrast, it is shown that only with wealth and education can anyone achieve ‘genius’ and become successful in terms of literature. Virginia Woolf argues through her character that men have always enjoyed privileges that gave men financial freedom. Whereas women had no private property to speak of; they were even considered property themselves. With financial freedom, one can have the luxury of writing and not worry about where one could find the next meal. With the contrast between Judith and William Shakespeare, we get an idea of no matter how innately genius one could be, without the proper upbringing, one cannot succeed. To prove her theory, put forth by fiction, she lists several female writers of the past. They were all childless and of noble statuses, which meant they had time for themselves, were financially independent, and were highly likely to be brought up with decent education. The result is that the concept of art, usually associated with the abstract, is now brought to the level of the material as well.
410002044 Leo
I want to answer the first question. Virginia Woolf used several examples to explain the art wasn’t irrelative to the concrete conditions. Like: She created the two non-existent universities; one is Oxford and the other is Fernham. Oxford represented the males’ conditions to create art and the Fernham represents the females’ conditions. Woolf used several parts to compare Oxford with Fernham, but she actually wanted to compare the created conditions between the man and the woman. Moreover, she wanted to respond to her point on the beginning she wrote--- a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. (Not only fiction but also other art activity)
Woolf also assumed that if Shakespeare had a sister who is as talent as Shakespeare. What kind of fate she were face? Her fortune was totally different from Shakespeare in the age. Because she is a woman, she can’t create dramas freely like her brother Shakespeare. And she also couldn’t go in to acting because she won’t be hired by any theater-manager. Finally, she got a job from a theater-manager, because pregnant by him. But she would commit suicide in the end. Even though, it just an imagination by Virginia Woolf but I think it would happen in that time. I think the whole metaphysical things are constructed by the concrete conditions. Go back to the words Virginia Woolf said” A women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” People only content financial independence and have own private space, these realities, can create art. Art is relative to the life and the concrete conditions.
49902048 Rita
I choose number three question to answer.
One of Virginia Woolf most respected poets Coleridge said that a great mind is androgynous. In this essay, Woolf uses the scene that there is a girl and young man got into taxi and then the cab glided off. This image that the different gender “separated” and “together again” gave Woolf the revelation of amphimixis. She thinks that in the man's brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain the woman predominates over the man. Only when both of these two genders can live in harmony and cooperate from the spirit so this peace would give the people a normal and comfortable state of mind.
Woolf believes that the androgynous brain born with creative, so that they can cause the resonance to people and make no obstacles to convey their emotion. She thinks the great writers match this trait like Shakespeare, Stern, Coleridge, Cowper, Lamb and Coleridge. By the way, Milton, Ben Jonson, Wordsworth and Tolstoy are too masculine. Because the works written by men are mostly straightforward and frankly and after you read few chapters you will find that the book seems filled with the stiff "I" in the article.
49902018 許祖菡
I would like to answer question 3.
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf had mentioned that Coleridge had said that “a great mind is androgynous.” And Woolf’s notion about what Coleridge means is that “the androgynous mind is resonant and porous; that it transmits emotion without impediment; that it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.” She believes that if one has open-mind, and his/her heart accepts things just like sponge, then he/she would become more understandable. Once we had an open-mind, widely open, there must be no obstacle in our opinion or writing. Therefore if we all be woman-manly or man-womanly and accept different features from us, then we must be “incandescent”, like Shakespeare’s mind, no obstacle, no foreign matter unconsumed. We have to learn how to stand and think at the other side, to think what is right what is wrong. And question our own opinion. Stop seeing things and effect by stereotypes. Seeing things and the world from different point of views can make us becomes more fully developed. And then “There must be freedom and there must be peace.”
49902016 邱睦樵 Ryan
3.Being androgynous instead of being purely man or purely woman is important to being a writer because it is fatal to write while preoccupied with anything. Virginia Woolf demonstrated earlier that being preoccupied with anything, money, freedom, food, etc, was the reason why there are few female writers. Here, Virginia Woolf’s belief of a writer must be androgynous prevents two preoccupations that a writer might have. Firstly, being non-androgynous means that a person might be masculine or feminine and having such a mindset symbolizes the active acknowledgement of a non-androgynous mindset; therefore, the person would refuse/be unable to fully comprehend the nature of matter in discussion, be it fiction or nonfiction. The second preoccupation would be the realizations of the privileges (male) and plights (female) that might have been forced upon a person. Such realizations could easily disrupt or tamper a train of thought that had the slightest relevance to gender differences, including but not limited to characters of the opposite sex in fiction. Virginia Woolf gives the example of Shakespeare to prove that to become a literary success, one has to have an androgynous mindset.
Kenny 410002016
I would like to answer the third question.
The reason why Virgina Woolf asserted" It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple" is because this kind of concept will cause lots of chaos to our society. Take Fascism in Italy as an example. Fascism admired the characteristics of unmitigated masculinity, self-assertive virility, and these distinctions made those people think too aggressively and act radically. Those people always have the wrong idea that men are superior than women. And they produced tremendous disasters in our history as a result.
So it is important for people to have an androgynous mind. With androgynous mind, people would think more differently, they would see things from many perspectives. Men and women would understand each other more. Just as Cloeridge mentioned, androgynous mind is resonant and porous also incandescent and undivided. People can think more flexibly also change their thinking about the stereotype that what men and women should behave in the society.
And Virginia Woolf took Shakespeare as an example, he had an androgynous mind, the man-womanly mind. Because of this characteristic, we can discover that those characters he made had the andorgynous idea buried in their mind. This setting made him creat so many masterpieces and they are very attractive and interesting. Also other authors like Keats, Sterne, Cowper, Lamb and Coleridge are androgynous. Their works are all creative, incandescent and undivided.
410002023 Eric
(The answer of question No.1)
In this article, Virginia Woolf points out an idea that literature need to take practical factor into consideration. It is essential to have an own room and five hundred pound per year for women to be a writer or poet. Of course, people need to maintain the livehood first, and then they are able to pursue high quality spiritual life. Unfortunately, woman has been oppressed by the social institution over a long period of time. Since women were born, they belong to their father, and once women get married, they become the property of their husband. At that time women can’t go to school and keep their own property. For these factors mentioned above, It is almost impossible for women to do literary creation. Nevertheless, there are still some great female writers work hard in this kind of bad environment and publish it with pen name. For example, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Jane Bronte and Jane Austin. Virginia Woolf thinks literature should not totally disconnect from the society. Therefore, the writing material about daily life are more accessible to people. Furthermore, a good art work which reflects the social condition arouses readers’ sympathy.
49902060 Joanne
3.
"It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple." This contention of Virginia Woolf points to writings. If the writer is too man or woman pure and simple, his or her works would be biased. In fact, that's the phenomenon Virginia Woolf sees and feels at that time. With the characteristics and points of view of both sexes, writers can make their works more all-round and profound. She thinks that "If one is a man, still the woman part of his brain must have effect. "Everyone is naturally woman-manly or man-womanly and it is natural for the sexes to co-operate. Virginia uses a well-known figure as an example, Shakespeare. She thinks Shakespeare's fully developed mind highlights his works better that he does not think specially or separately of sex. Androgynous thinking is more convincing which makes announcers convey their ideas without impediment and makes listeners(or readers) be willing to accept the opinions without compulsion and reluctance. Hence, it is better to have androgynous mind of thinking.
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