Women’s Creative Dilemmas in Metaphorical Perspective--Taking Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own as an Example

Article ID: 4458

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Keywords: Metaphor; Virgina Woolf; a Room of one’s own

Abstract

This paper takes the theory of conceptual metaphor as a framework to explore the revelation and critique of female creative dilemmas by metaphors in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. By analysing the spatial, economic and physical metaphors in the text, the study points out that: firstly, “room”, as the core spatial metaphor, not only symbolizes the physical privacy required for women’s creativity, but also maps the reconstruction of spiritual freedom and power relations, which deconstructs the binary of “family-public” under patriarchy. -It also maps the reconstruction of spiritual freedom and power relations, deconstructing the dichotomy of “family” and “public” under patriarchy. Secondly, the economic metaphor of “Five Hundred Pounds” reveals the decisive role of material basis for spiritual independence, and criticises the suppression of women’s creativity due to the unfair distribution of social resources. Finally, the physical metaphor of “Shakespeare’s sister”, through the tragedy of the fictional character Judith, visualises the historical situation of stifled female creativity as the destruction of the body and the banishment from the public sphere. The study shows that Woolf constructs a cognitive framework through multi-dimensional metaphors, not only presenting the existential dilemma of women in the 19th century, but also challenging the patriarchal discourse system with linguistic strategies and fighting for the right to speak for women’s creativity. Combined with the theories of Lecov and Beauvoir, this paper deepens the interpretive power of metaphor in gender studies and provides a new perspective for contemporary feminist literary criticism.