VIRGINIA WOOLF - Professions for Women

VIRGINIA WOOLF - Professions for Women

"Professions for women" is the title of a lecture of 1942 by Virginia Woolf, in which she talks about the professional opportunities for women in the 20^th century and, particularly, about the profession of writer.

Indeed, Woolf talks about "professions" and not "jobs" in order to dignify women's activities.

In particular, Woolf talks about writing as a reputable and cheap profession; for this reason literature is a profession in which women have succeeded before than in others.

In addition, Woolf refers to writing as the only space in which women could fulfil themselves without particular problems.

Then, Woolf says that with the reward received for his first article (one pound the shilling and sixpence) she bought a Persian cat instead of spending that sum on basic goods (such as food): this in order to demonstrate that her profession had not the only aim of providing means of support.

But Virginia Woolf was a privileged woman.

Her subject of writing was not as important as the very experience of writing: indeed, she had to ht against the "Angel in the House", that is, the phantom of a woman who didn't allow her to write.

The Angel in the House was the stereotype of the woman: sympathetic, compassionate, tender, deceiving, charming, pure.

So, to be able to write all that she really thought, Woolf had to break free from this ure: she had to kill that feminine part of herself that had been inculcated into her through education.

Once killed the Angel, Woolf was free to be herself, but now she had to discover what is herself, so, what is a woman.

At this point, Woolf has a more perturbing experience than that of killing the Angel in the House: Woolf experiences the state of mind of the novelist, pointing out that it is different for men and women writers: indeed, men are repetitive, offer always the same elements in order to give the reader security and in this way men writers lack imagination.

Women writers, on the contrary, rely on their unconscious, their passions: so, the experience of writing for women is like an explosion exhaling foam that, like the foam of the sea, is sign of vitality, energy, life and so is the symbol of the artistic creation.