EnglishClub

Pre-listening vocabulary

• feminism: the movement for women’s rights
• essay: a short piece of writing about a certain topic
• absence: the lack of something
• independence: the ability to control your own life
• disadvantage: something that makes success difficult

Listening activity

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Gapfill exercise

A Room of One’s Own is a feminist essay written by English Virginia Woolf. The essay’s main is that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. Woolf came to this conclusion after noticing the absence of female writers in . She believed that many more women could have written books if they’d had and independence. Woolf first presented A Room of One’s Own at a women’s university in 1928, and it as a book one year later. This was a time when women still faced many disadvantages in life. Woolf’s essay was one of the first well-known feminist works, and it is still famous today.

Comprehension questions

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Discussion/essay questions

1. Why did Woolf believe that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”?
2. Do you think that feminist works from the 1920s are still relevant? Why or why not?

Transcript

A Room of One’s Own is a feminist essay written by English author Virginia Woolf. The essay’s main argument is that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. Woolf came to this conclusion after noticing the absence of female writers in history. She believed that many more women could have written books if they’d had money and independence. Woolf first presented A Room of One’s Own at a women’s university in 1928, and published it as a book one year later. This was a time when women still faced many disadvantages in life. Woolf’s essay was one of the first well-known feminist works, and it is still famous today.