Reading Questions - A Room of One's Own

Use the following questions as (optional) guides for reading and reflecting on Chapters 3 and 4 of A Room of One's Own.

• Who is Judith Shakespeare, and why is she so significant to Woolf's argument?
• What do you learn about the history of women writers in Chapters 3 and 4?
• What does Woolf seem to suggest about the importance of rooms? What sorts of rooms does she discuss?
• At the conclusion of Chapter 3, Woolf addresses the college women in her "audience," remarking that they have "got [them]selves to college and enjoy sitting rooms--or is it bed-sitting rooms--of [their] own" (56). As women in college, what are your reactions to Woolf's ideas about the importance of having rooms of your own? What are your own relationships to your dorm rooms, bedrooms, or campus study rooms? What effect do these spaces have on your mind?
  

A blog of one's own?

As you read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and begin to consider her argument that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (4), take a look at this blog post, "Blogs as Literary Devices," in which Paula Maggio links the freedom and empowerment of the blogosphere to Woolf's "room." Would you agree? Do you think blogs are an extension of Woolf's vision or something different?

For some historical context, check out this brief article, "Sisters of Suffrage: British and American Women Fight for the Vote," by Barbara Winslow from the online journal History Now. It sheds light on the moment in Woolf's text in which the narrator contemplates which is more important--the vote or the money--to women's intellectual independence (37). What were your responses at this point in the reading?