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In Our Time

A Room of One's Own

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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,

0:09.4

and you can get news about our programs if you follow us

0:12.0

on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.

0:14.6

I hope you enjoyed the program.

0:16.2

Hello, in October, 1928, the novelist Virginia Wolfe

0:19.4

was invited to give two lectures at Cambridge University

0:22.5

about women and fiction.

0:24.6

In front of an audience at Newham College,

0:26.4

she delivered the following words.

0:28.8

All I could do was offer you an opinion upon one minor point.

0:33.1

A woman must have money under a room of her own

0:35.6

if she's the right fiction, and that, as you will see,

0:38.6

leaves a great problem of the true nature of women

0:41.2

and the true nature of fiction unsolved.

0:44.1

These lectures form the basis of a book

0:45.8

she published the following year,

0:47.2

and Wolfe chose a room of one's own for its title.

0:50.2

It detects the test of scene for the study

0:52.2

and women's writing for the rest of the 20th century,

0:55.0

arguably it initiated the discipline of women's history as well.

...

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