A Room of One's Own

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Virginia Woolf's highly influential essay on women and literature, which considers both literary history and future opportunity.

In 1928 Woolf gave two lectures at Cambridge University about women and fiction. In front of an audience at Newnham College, she delivered the following words: “All I could do was offer you an opinion upon one minor point - a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved”.

These lectures formed the basis of a book she published the following year, and Woolf chose A Room Of One’s Own for its title. It is a text that set the scene for the study of women’s writing for the rest of the 20th century. Arguably, it initiated the discipline of women’s history too.

With

Hermione Lee Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford

Michele Barrett Emeritus Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory at Queen Mary, University of London

and

Alexandra Harris Professor of English at the University of Birmingham

Producer Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.7	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.2	There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our
0:10.7	programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC in our time. I hope you enjoyed
0:15.2	the program.
0:16.2	Hello in October 1928, the novelist Virginia Wolf was invited to give two lectures at Cambridge
0:21.5	University about women and fiction. In front of an audience at Newnham College,
0:26.4	she delivered the following words. All I could do was offer you an opinion upon one minor point.
0:33.1	A woman must have money and a room of her own
0:35.6	if she's to write fiction,
0:37.0	and that, as you will see, leaves a great problem
0:40.0	of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved.
0:44.1	These lectures form the basis of a book you published the following year and Wolf chose
0:48.0	a room of one's own for its title.
0:50.3	It's a text that sets the scene for the study of women's writing from the rest of the 20th century.
0:54.8	Arguably, it initiated the discipline of women's history as well.
0:58.4	With me to discuss a room of bonzo, are Alexandra Harris, Professor of English at the University of Buryon.
1:05.0	Michelle Barrett, Emeritus Professor of Modern Literary and Cultural Theory, Queen Mary University of London,
1:10.0	and her minor league, Emeritus Professor of English literature at the University of Oxford.
1:15.0	Her minor league, women's access to education is a theme in a room of one's own.
1:21.0	What would you tell us about Wolf's education?
1:23.6	Yes, her personal story and her childhood background are right at the heart of this essay,
	...

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