Narrative Authority in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

   

     I really enjoyed reading the first chapter of Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own. In particular, I was struck by how she did such a wonderful job of making her fictional descriptions of the colleges of Oxbridge and Fernham realistic that I found myself in a quandary about whether or not to believe her claim that they were completely invented. In fact, though she grounds them as inventions early in the chapter, I found myself interpreting the experiences of the speaker literally. I think it shows her mastery of the writing process that she was able to enact her own argument about women and fiction through showcasing her own ability to write so well that the line between fact and invention is blurred. Ultimately, her essay's compellingly realistic and evocative tone illustrates exactly what heights female writers can attain when they have money and a room of their own to facilitate their careers.
     When Woolf first stated that "Oxbridge is an invention; so is Fernham" I couldn't help but wonder if she was not only invoking a comparison to Oxford University and a similarly existing women's college, but obliquely implying that she was relating a number of factual details about those institutions. Of course, the incident with the beadle directing her off of the turf reserved for male students, and likewise the old gentleman who refused her entrance to the hallowed library, indicate that Woolf certainly wouldn't have been invited to a luncheon with the "Oxbridge" students. However, her descriptions of the food and conversation at that lavish luncheon are so redolent with sensory detail that it is easy to begin to wonder if she spied on such a gathering or perhaps received a description of the luncheon from an acquaintance. Though that is an interesting matter to ponder, the literal truth is most likely that Woolf invoked that very specificity of detail in order to highlight her own skill as a writer, which should in turn have gained her admittance to that gathering. Yet again, she uses the format of her essay to support her thesis that women deserve to have the same educational and career opportunities as men.
     Later, when Woolf chronicles the speaker's return to the humbler women's college, she states that "Fiction must stick to facts, and the truer the facts the better the fiction--so we are told." On the surface, it seems that her description of Fernham adheres to this maxim and, in this case, Woolf could very well have dined at the women's college. However, Woolf again resists the patriarchal framework that presumably created that maxim when she begins her description of Fernham's grounds as a beautiful springtime bower and later states that it was actually an October evening. Her idealization of the women's college, to the point that she places an unnamed and eminent female author in the springtime grounds, shows how a skillful writer of fiction can manipulate language to give the impression of a factual scene. She inverts that maxim in the face of contemporary writing conventions, and it makes her argument for women being afforded the same advantages as men all the stronger.
     Overall, I found this essay a fascinating enactment of its own argument about women being just as good or better writers than men if given the right tools. Woolf's skill in blending fact and fiction to the point that the reader begins to question the narrator's veracity and has to reflect on the motive behind that blending results in a much more nuanced argument. In other words, she not only illustrates what female writers can achieve when given the chance, but also inverts patriarchal standards while doing so.

The Importance of the Backstory in Understanding Victorian Poetry

     Since the Victorianism unit came to a close, I've been trying to think of an overarching theme or characteristic that I can use to sum up the pieces we read in class. I couldn't think of anything that applied to both prose and verse pieces, but I was able to come up with a trait that a number of poems in this unit share. This trait is the dependence upon the backstory to create meaning. In other words, a number of Victorian poems rely upon either a preexisting piece of literature or a historical occurrence as background for the events portrayed in the poem. In specific, Alfred Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott," Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," and Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" all depend upon a backstory to some extent.
     Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" is a prominent example of a poem whose construction relies upon a preexisting piece of literature, in this case on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat from the Italian novella Donna di Scalotta. The title character in this poem is modeled on Elaine herself and her problematic relationship with Lancelot. Also, there is the fact that many of the references within the poem assume a familiarity with the basic framework of Arthurian legends, specifically the tales relating to Sir Lancelot and his preference for Guinevere over all other women. Without the backstory of Elaine and her unrequited love for Lancelot, Tennyson's poem would lose much of its thematic resonance and thus be a less influential work.
       Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," unlike Tennyson's poem, relies upon an actual historical figure for the poem's premise. The word "Ferrera" preceding the poem is the first indication that the duke in the text is most likely the sixteenth-century duke of Ferrera, Alfonso Il d'Este. Proceeding from this fact, it is possible to reconcile his "last duchess" with the fourteen-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici whom he married for her substantial dowry. Without having this information, the poem is rather confusing, especially when trying to figure out just whom the Duke is addressing in the dramatic monologue. With the historical backstory, however, it becomes possible to ascertain that the Duke is speaking to the envoy of the Count who is responsible for arranging the Duke's next marriage.
     The backstory in Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is less central in the process of understanding the poem than in "My Last Duchess," yet the poem still loses impact without several historical footnotes. For example, when the poem references Sophocles also hearing the "eternal note of sadness"  it is important to know that he was a Greek playwright who wrote heavily about fate and the will of the gods since this fact adds significance to Arnold's overall theme of a doomed and faithless world. Also, there is another ancient Greek reference that also foregrounds the timelessness of Arnold's message: that of the "ignorant armies" which refers to the Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta.
     Overall, all three of these poems would lose impact were it not for the ability of the audience to refence their respective backstories. The poems would still be lovely examples of verse composition from the Victorian era, but their thematic messages would either be lost or profoundly lessened without the presence of those backstories and their historical and literary reverberations.