It was Virginia Woolf ’s birthday this week (25 January) and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this great woman’s life.
Woolf is an absolute must for anyone wanting to get to grips with the history of feminist or queer writing. Misunderstood in her day, her thinly veiled attraction to women (and disgust of men) is better understood today. Her relationship with Vita Sackville-West would be the hot lesbian couple of the day if they have been born 100 years later.
You need only look as far as the gender-bending Orlando (who was based on Sackville-West) to learn more about Woolf’s thoughts on gender and sex. The titular character gets to experience life from the male and female perspective and sees the world from two very different points of view.
Disillusionment
To say Woolf was disillusioned with the world she lived in would be an understatement. Read Mrs Dalloway to see what I mean! The titular character moves from content to dissatisfied throughout the book. No real plot emerges, merely the thoughts and feeling of a woman with no real place in the world.
Born to a Victorian mother in 1882, Woolf came of age in a new world with emerging social changes. Abused by her half brothers and rocked by several tragedies early in life, Woolf entered adulthood with wounds that would never heal. She suffered (we think) from bipolar disorder
Stream of Consciousness
A pioneer of using a literary technique called stream of consciousness, making her works immersive and slightly addictive. She focused on the way things felt rather than material things and heavily criticised other writers of her time for being too focussed on the obvious.
Woolf attempted to take her life several times and eventually succeeded in 1941 at the age of 59. She felt she was unable to face the horrors of war against the Nazis and was filled with self-doubt as a writer.
I wonder what she would think if she could see the consequences of her work. She was a writer before her time, appreciated more now the rest of the world has caught up.
Charlotte Wood is a feminist and writer of the macabre and sinister. She reads horror, fantasy, classic literature and historical fiction (with a preference for history from a woman’s perspective).
She’s another author I keep meaning to read . Have copies of some of her work . I must give her a go
If you have Orlando it’s a great place to start. It’s a great book and gives the best insight into her psyche.