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The Voice of Female in Virginia Woolf's Literary Works by Dilsoz A.Lateef Muhmmad

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is one of the most distinguished modern writers who has shown her efficiency not only in literature, but also in the feminist movement. In fact, she successfully used her works to uncover the discrimination of women in the private and public spheres. Although she never intended to actively join in the feminist movement but she could achieve an outstanding position as a speaker for women's rights. With her innovative and modern style, she tackled various issues which have become as a key principle for many feminists afterwards such as material and immaterial oppression experienced by women, specific literary language used by women in their writings, the relationship between feminism and pacifism, and that between fascism and patriarchy. In the Victorian society into which she was born, traditions passed from mothers to daughters and from fathers to sons, and she was supposed to adhere to her family's traditions. For her, these traditions were reminders of her culture low estimation of women's intellect and personality. Therefore, she attempted to raise the voice of female through her literary writing. Protesting against the atmosphere of her family at Hyde Gate Park, Virginia Woolf formed an intellectual female world, where she could speak out her daring ideas freely. Her great contribution to feminism was her two famous essays A Room of One's Own (1929)and Three Guineas (1938), through which she refers to the hinders that inhibit women from proving their creative abilities. She believes that women's talents and mental abilities are not less than those of men, and that they could attain professionalism, if they have the same privileges of their opposite sex. A Room of One's Own tackles the historical, political, social and literary contexts pertinent to women's lives, whereas Three Guineas mounts the feminist, pacifist argument against fascism. Living in the Victorian society, she was conscious of the severe conditions of women, who, as a result of the patriarchal system, were treated as prisoners in their homes. Symbolically, women like caged nightingale, deprived of their freedom for the sake of pleasing others. In these two essays, Virginia Woolf refers to women writers of earlier ages, taking them as her models for resisting the oppressive system. These women were crippled by men's hostility to contribute and assure their intellectual abilities over centuries and express their feeling freely. Unlike her forerunners, Virginia Woolf challenged the literary confinement of women and expressed her true feeling without being constrained by the tyranny of her counterpart. Therefore, she spells all talented women with her boldness to kill the fear that men have sown within their minds and uncover their brilliance that was buried in the false social code of intellectual inferiority.

References: Curtis, Vanessa (2003). Virginia Woolf's Women. Gloucestershire: Sutten Publishing. Smart, William (1965). Eight Modern Essayists. New York: St Martin's Press