Feminist Readings of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own

Abstract

Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) is one of the most seminal texts in feminist literary criticism. This research paper explores the work’s ideological, historical, and literary contributions to feminist discourse, focusing on Woolf's insights into women's oppression, the necessity of economic independence for women writers, and the construction of gender and literary identity. Through an interdisciplinary lens that draws on feminist theory, Marxist critique, psychoanalysis, and post-structuralism, this paper examines how A Room of One’s Own foregrounds the systemic inequalities faced by women in literary and educational domains. It also addresses how Woolf’s rhetorical style, including her use of the narrator “Mary Beton,” imaginary storytelling, and metaphors like Judith Shakespeare, creates a powerful feminist critique that still resonates in 21st-century feminist thought.

Keywords- Virginia Woolf, Feminism, A Room of One’s Own, Gender and Literature, Patriarchy, Feminist Literary Criticism, Judith Shakespeare, Economic Independence, Female Subjectivity