Yolanda,
I appreciate your call to broaden our conception of the prophetic. It got me to thinking about the prophetic voices that have touched my life and influenced my understanding of the world. I know you asked us to name little-known American prophets, but I need to take a moment to acknowledge a very well-known British woman, because her prophetic voice is so meaningful to me. I nominate Virginia Woolf for status as prophet.
I was an undergraduate English major at Wake Forest University when I first encountered Woolf's writings. Though she was two generations and a continent removed from me, I was drawn to and moved by Woolf. Virginia Woolf is the source of my intellectual and political commitment to personal vulnerability as a tool for public writing. Woolf was a deeply troubled woman, but her fragility was balanced by a ferocious intellect and unflinching commitment to examining social ills. Her diaries, her fiction, and her essays compromise an astonishing body of work.
Among Woolf's most prophetic analyses was her assertion that a woman must have a room of her own if she is to write. Nothing could be more true. Woolf point out that we cannot know the true capacity and genius of women because women rarely create under the same circumstances as men. Women are burdened with domestic duties, socialized to care for others' needs, and rewarded for catering to everyone but themselves.
Writing is an essentially selfish task. It requires uninterrupted stretches of time. Some of those hours are spent actively putting words to paper, but sometimes you just need to wander around the yard and let the ideas knit themselves together in your mind. You cannot rush writing. You can't just schedule it into 3 hour blocks while the kids are at daycare or wrap it up in time to get dinner on the table. Writing requires the freedom, agency, and resources that allow you to close your own door, set your own hours, and make your own rules.
It is perhaps indicative of the enormous genius of women that so many mange to produce astonishing work even within the limiting constraints of unevenly distributed and gendered domestic labor.
In the years since my daughter was born I have struggled to put together a second book manuscript. The research is done, the outline is crafted, but mommy-duty often interferes with the hours I need to complete the writing. This is, of course, why I blog. Because 400-600 words is a perfect length for a woman with no room of her own!
Over the past month I have been furiously working to finish my W.E.B. Du Bois lectures that I will deliver at Harvard University next week. I have been trying to do this while advising seven senior theses, directing the undergraduate program in Politics, traveling for public lectures, walking the dogs, and reading to my daughter. These responsibilities are the substance of my life and I don't wish any of them away, but I do yearn for that space which Woolf prophetically described as essential to writing.
I want to close the door on a room of my own and be alone with the words. Today I acknowledge my foremother, the prophet Viriginia Woolf, who knew that women need a little space.
Melissa
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11 comments:
Melissa,
Thank you for your reflection. I used to have a room of my own, but lost it was one of the greatest losses I went through I became a single mom. As you know, I am also a scholar and professor (along with all that goes with being a woman of color) so I know what that's all about. I've been a single mom to two boys and with nobody else around to help me parent while writing articles, teaching and prepping for new courses, attending conferences, traveling for lectures, walking the dog, making sure we don't run out of toilet paper, help with homework, drive kids around,et al. For the past 5 years, what I miss the most was a room of my own. I used to have that room with a lock from the inside . Women are not only socialized to care for others, to put others first, to take domestic work seriously, as it should be(!) but, we often become unselfish muse to others and inspire them to do their best while not being good stewards of our own gifts. We are often brimming with gifts of intellect of our own but somehow we forget that intellectual labor is something that we HAVE to do for the sake of our world and for our children. You say that you do this blog because 600 words you can write in the interstices during your day...well, this professor, mother, dog walker, after school driver reads them because, if I can find one that is crafted with gift of precision, like The Kitchen Table, I feel lucky that I had fruitfully expanded my intellect in those brief moments. I know you'll ROCK at for the DuBois Lecture!!
I love this post.
In all due respect didn't Woolf come from wealth and privilege? Couldn't she have spent her life sitting on her ass if she wanted to? I bet Richard Wright busting suds would have liked a room of his own too. I have a problem with elite whining and wasn't she a nut to boot? Life is tough but in these times people who have the best of it lamenting wrings hollow.
Virginia Woolf as prophet? A most unusual pick. I just read her "A Voyage Out" and didn't really see any prophetic words or ideas therein.
I'm in complete awe of you, Anne Joh and so many others who work at the highest levels of scholarship and parenthood at the same time. My hat is off to the both of you and so many more who successfully make this journey.
Melissa, use your time at Harvard to breath in some quality time for yourself before hitting the end of the semester and academic year looming large.
While I don't necessarily agree with your choice of prophet, I enjoyed your post to TKT today. I always leave with a sense of having learned something new in the world of ideas each time I visit the Table. Thanks.
Melissa,
Your reflection has brought light to some recent frustration I have been feeling in my life without knowing why. As a single mother there is an inner battle I wage with myself between time for myself and spending time with my daughter, as well as the guilt that comes with feeling like I have chosen one over the other. My mother moved in with us a few months ago and while I can't say that it hasn't eased a few burdens, I am left with even less space for myself at a time when I crave and need it even more.
Thank you for sharing. It is a nice realization and inspiration to seek out spaces of my own in life.
In the conventional sense I wouldn't say Virgina Woolf was prophetic either, but she did hit the nail right on the head.
She was able to articulate the social responsibilities and customs that hinder women from enjoying the same level of freedom as men. For women reading Woolf's work, both then and now, she must have ranked pretty high on their list.
Orlando is by far my favorite piece by Woolf, with A Room of One's Own coming in right after.
beautiful stuff, thank you so much. your piece made me realise how i indeed need a room of my own.
thanks.
How do you tie in what Adrienne Rich said in her essay concerning Women and the University? Also, what are your takes on how women can and do exist inside academia/the ivory tower?
Thank you for this post. After 25 years spent lamenting in Corporate America, living the ins and outs of the downward trajectory of American Management AND Leadership (as if watching a bad horror movie), two academic degrees that feel like fresh bog rolls in a newly cleaned cabinet de toilette, and a fifteen year old son who simply wants money (daily), rides (weekly) and hugs and kisses (on command or every so often), your post opened up an opportunity for private, scholarly exploration. I have a better appreciation of my newly acquired "Room of One's Own" (money, optional LOL!). The ability to finally have time to dedicate to creating deliberate, researched art within my writings is priceless. Thank you for introducing another novel, perpetual, historic writer into my equation from where I can draw energy and inspiration to write.
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live". Marcus Aurelius
Lala,
I’m wondering whether you missed the point of Melissa’s assessment of Virginia Wolf in Wolf’s observation that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write…' It matters not that Wolf was a woman of privilege or riches untold. Time and space to write is what she coveted, and I can totally relate. In my case, I happen to be in a beautiful, live-in relationship with a loving and caring man who does his best to respect my inherent need for my own space to write, and it’s still not enough for me. Am I to be placed in the “elite whiner” category?
Just an observation.
Aundra
Melissa,
WOW! This post was truly inspiring and I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of Virginia Wolf. As a 60-something year-old woman of color presently trying to revive a writing career after raising and educating four children, this acknowledgment resonated with me more than you can know. Your thoughts on the basic necessities of a female writer’s life and societal demands echoes what I have known for many years. I would also add to this list the name of another inspiration: Tillie Olsen, whose book, “Silences” addresses the numerous social and economic obstacles in the way of women writers. She wrote: “In the 20 years I bore and raised my children, I usually had to work on a paid job as well, so the simplest circumstances for creation did not exist.” These works by these two women have been my touchstone, and a reminder of my potential. Like many other women writers of my generation, I was “silenced” for too many years while raising my children and I have grappled with the societally- imposed patriarchal injunction: art vs. personal fulfillment. I struggled to hold onto the intoxicating rapture of writing while trying to balance the practical necessities of parenthood and family life. I’ve greatly admired and benefited greatly from the stunning examples of women of color who have successfully navigated this tricky terrain, and now, with my children grown up and living productive lives, I have finally earned and claimed my own room of my own. However, as I heard at numerous kitchen tables while growing up: “Life Happens. When one door closes, another one opens.” As fate would have it, I now find myself in a beautiful, live-in relationship with a loving and caring man who does his best to respect my inherent need for my own space to write, and it’s still not enough for me. I need even more time “…to be alone with the words”. To make them dance onto the page. Perhaps Virginia was also trying to tell us, we’re just wired that way.
Many thanks for this great post.
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