A Room of One’s Own

　　Thinking is My Fighting.
　　吳爾芙帶領我們找回女性創作與雌雄同體的身影，
　　預言莎士比亞的妹妹就在你我身旁出現！

　　《衛報》、《時代雜誌》百大非文學作品＋《世界報》20世紀百大書籍

　　她的質疑為全世界女人打開了改寫歷史的空間，
　　並激發了女性主義文學批評的熱潮。

　　《自己的房間》是由吳爾芙的系列演講稿匯集而成，被視為二十世紀最重要的女性主義文學、及女性主義文學批評的經典。

　　1928年10月，吳爾芙受邀到劍橋大學紐南學院和格頓學院兩個女子學院，就「女性與小說」的主題發表演說。她虛構了一位當代女子的日常遭遇，包括赴大學學院卻被斥喝遠離草坪行走，側身男性學者餐會間的被剝奪感，在大英圖書館瀏覽書架發現盡是男性作品，在倫敦公寓俯瞰街景懷想獨立女性身影等。在男性主導的文學與學術傳統中，女性沒有自己的房間，沒有教育、經濟與社會資源，要想創作甚至在文學史上留名，實是難上加難。

　　吳爾芙想像，十八世紀的莎士比亞如果有位才華洋溢的詩人妹妹，她只能無名而終；而十九世紀以寫作聞名的勃朗特姊妹和喬治．艾略特，則必須以男性筆名發表，喬治．艾略特更因為與情人的關係不見容於社會，必須隱居鄉間。

　　「女性若是想要寫作，一定要有錢和自己的房間。」吳爾芙呼籲，女性擁有一個實體的空間，繼而成為心靈的空間、思考的空間、創作的空間。在英國維多利亞時期以降的保守氣氛中，甚至對二十世紀以來女性主義的開展，都是鏗鏘有力的發聲！

　　*此中文簡介取自<<自己的房間>>由漫遊者文化出版

　　In this extraordinary essay, Virginia Woolf examines the limitations of womanhood in the early twentieth century. With the startling prose and poetic licence of a novelist, she makes a bid for freedom, emphasizing that the lack of an independent income, and the titular ‘room of one’s own’, prevents most women from reaching their full literary potential.

　　As relevant in its insight and indignation today as it was when first delivered in those hallowed lecture theatres, A Room of One’s Own remains both a beautiful work of literature and an incisive analysis of women and their place in the world.

　　This Macmillan Collector’s Library edition of A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf features an afterword by the British art historian Frances Spalding.

作者簡介

維吉尼亞．吳爾芙（Virginia Woolf 1882~1941）

　　二十世紀重要的英國小說家、散文家，也是文學史上現代主義與女性主義的先鋒；她與倫敦文友創辦「布倫斯伯里文化圈」並在其中扮演要角，對二十世紀初期的英國文化影響極深。

　　吳爾芙出版多部長篇傑作，包括《達洛維夫人》，乃至充滿詩意與高度實驗色彩的《浪潮》。她同時也著墨於文學批評、短篇故事、傳記與報導寫作，包括充滿戲謔顛覆意味的《歐蘭朵》，《自己的房間》、《三枚金幣》則是激昂的女性主義論文。

　　吳爾芙天性敏感，少女時因母親與姐姐離世遭受精神創痛，之後長年受憂鬱症所苦，並於六十歲時投水自盡。

　 　Virginia Woolf was born in 1882, the youngest daughter of the Victorian writer Sir Leslie Stephen. She was educated at home with her sister, Vanessa, in a literary environment. The death of Woolf’s mother in 1895 and her father in 1904 led to the first of the serious nervous breakdowns that would come to feature heavily in her life. Shortly afterwards she moved with her sister and two of her brothers to 46 Gordon Square, which was to be the first meeting place of the circle of writers and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group. In 1912 Virginia married Leonard Woolf, with whom she would later establish the Hogarth Press, and also published her first novel, The Voyage Out. It would be followed by eight others, including Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), which together establish her position as one of the most important modernists of the twentieth century. Woolf committed suicide in 1941.