Casey Smith's "Writing About Modern Literature": Woolf's Reform vs Solanas's Revolution

Short Essay Four

Woolf: The School of Life
Solanas: Warning for Sensitive Souls

Read in Norton: Woolf (336-371); Solanas (667-669).

Essay Due: The start of class next Wednesday, October 30

Only 39 years separate the publication dates of two of the most influential manifestos about the role of women in contemporary art and life: Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own (1929) and Valerie Solanas's SCUM Manifesto (1968). Each writer approaches the same issue or problem: the erasure of women from history and current artistic and political life. However, the means by which they use language to convey their ideas is radically different. Woolf takes her time to construct an argument that is historically informed and nuanced. Solanas goes straight for the jugular (figuratively and also literally speaking). It's the difference between reform and revolution.

In your one page single-spaced typed essay, you must take a side. Is Woolf's approach better or more effective than Solanas's? Maybe for a 2019 audience Solanas's direct style is the way to communicate effectively. Why is this issue still important today? Maybe it's more and more important (cf. #metoo). Use textual evidence from A Room of One's Own and SCUM Manifesto to support your position. These two texts (Woolf and Solanas) are your primary sources. You are also required to use textural evidence from the two secondary sources that I have included included as links at the bottom of this post. Of course, you're free to use other scholarly sources of your own choosing. On Monday we will be discussing how to incorporate (weave) scholarship into your writing, and we'll also try to demystify MLA documentation style.

Click here for MLA basics on in-text citation.