Step 1: Reading “A Room of One’s Own”

Distribute the Virginia Woolf excerpt, either as a hard copy handout or online. Give students several minutes to read the text. Have them annotate or take notes as they read and direct them to spend more time with the last sentence. Ask them what, based on the passage, the last sentence is meant to communicate.

Step 2: Discussing “A Room of One’s Own”

Briefly discuss the meanings of Woolf’s “a room of one’s own” comment.

Ask your students what is required to support sustained creative practices (or a similar question about leisure, writing, etc.). The goal is to prompt them to make connections between having money and having time to write. Also invite them to explore what Woolf meant by “a room of one’s own” and why that would have been important to her as a writer. Ask students why having a “room of one’s own” may be different for women than for men.

Finally, dedicate some time for analyzing the last part of the sentence: “...the great problem of the true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction.” Ask students: What do you think “the great problem” is?

Optional: If students don’t offer examples on their own, you might want to fill in with some of Woolf’s evidence (noting that the essay was written in 1928 in England, and that Woolf is white). For example, if men could retreat to their homes to find respite, Woolf argues that women didn’t have this option because home was not a place to rest; rather, it was a place of unending work (caring for children or ailing relatives, cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc.)

Woolf, also notes the ongoing legacy of historical practices, citing this excerpt from Trevelyan’sA History of England : “Wife beating as a recognized right of man and was practiced without shame by high as well as low…Similarly, the daughter who refused to marry the gentleman of her parents’ choice was liable to be locked up, beaten and flung about the room, without any shock being inflicted on public opinion. Marriage was not an affair of personal affection, but of family avarice…”

Woolf further notes that until the mid-1800s, women were not permitted to own property, making them dependent on men. And the lack of reliable birth control meant that some women were constantly pregnant and consumed with caring for children.

Alternatively, if time allows, you could offer an opportunity for students to practice research skills by assigning them to find out who Virginia Woolf was and what the historical situation was for white women in England when she wrote the essay.

Ultimately, the goal is to encourage your students to perform a class and gender analysis, and to identify the structures, systems, and ways of being that make it more difficult for women and working class people to participate in the ‘creative class.’

Step 3: Viewing the Film Clips and Applying Woolf’s Observations to a Modern Life

a) Review the main points of the discussion of the need for “a room of one’s own” and invite students to see how they apply to a modern family.

b) Introduce About Love, explaining to students that they will see clips from a documentary that filmmaker Archana Phadke made about her family in Mumbai, India in 2015-2017. Remind them that they aren’t seeing the entire story of the family, but only selected moments.

c) Play each clip. As time allows, pause after each clip so students can react to what they see and comment on how it illustrates or contradicts Woolf’s assertions about writing. Invite them to pay special attention to the strategies that Maneesha uses to give herself time to think and write.

Step 4: Student Brainstorming about Creating Their Own Time & Space to Write

Use the remaining class time for students, in pairs or small groups, to imagine what they would write about if they had the time, space, and security to do so. Once they have an idea about what they would want to write, invite them to brainstorm strategies about how they could create the time and space they need to actually write. Invite them to think through the details. Would they need a computer or would they use a pen & paper? Where could they go to concentrate? Where could they go for inspiration?

Step 5: Assignment

Have students create a plan for themselves. The goal is for each student to intentionally carve out 10-15 minutes per day where they can be undisturbed as they think, reflect, and write.

They should write a plan that provides details of how they would go about creating this solitary space to think and create. Additionally, have them include what they would like to write about on their first day in their own personal “room of one’s own.”

[Optional] Step 6: Sharing
Offer class time or an online platform for students to share their plans, implement them, and report back on how it went. Invite them to reflect on the difference between writing for oneself and writing for an audience, writing that has been assigned compared to writing about whatever one chooses, and writing fiction compared with writing other types of texts.

Teachers! You may even consider building in five minutes at the beginning and end of your class periods to allow students some time to reflect and write in their journals. This way you can support their strategizing and planning.

EXTENSIONS

Have students make their own films about their families. What types of scenes do they think would be most important to capture?

Compare Maneesha’s desire for quiet, alone time with the ideas of Henry David Thoreau.

Explore in greater depth how differences in age, socioeconomic class, culture, and gender influence one’s capacity to write.

Review the story that Maneesha shares and study the history of Radha-Krishna stories.