A society of outsiders. Three guineas is presented here in its original form, with the photographs that Virginia Woolf had associated with her text. In these photos, men in uniforms represent institutions of the patriarchal society against which the writer speaks. Translated here by Cécile Wajsbrot published by Le Bruit du Temps, this little-known book is striking in the vehemence of its tone and its blatantly topical dimension. Epistolary fiction considered as a continuation ofA room of one’s own (published nine years ago), Three guineas is Virginia Woolf’s response to a letter from a treasurer who asked her, at the dawn of the Second World War: “How can we prevent war? »
By answering this fundamental question, in 1938, three years before her death, Virginia Woolf, 56 years old, developed a radical, committed and ironic feminist thought, which was interested in the economic question and the education of women. Associating warlike impulses with masculine impulses motivated by conquest and competition, it invites us to think about ways of educating women that allow them real conditions of emancipation. “If we help the daughter of an educated man to go to Cambridge, are we not forcing her to think, not about education but about war, not about how to learn but how to fight so that she can obtain the same advantages than his brothers? » Not only should women have access to education and positions equal to men, but they should also receive equivalent salaries. Virginia Woolf assumes that “daughters of educated men” (it excludes straight away, and quite honestly, women from working class backgrounds who do not have access to the same education anyway) can have an influence on their brothers and their fathers and that this influence could have an impact on the way they understand the world. If what motivates women is less bellicose than what motivates men, the impact they could have on them would therefore probably have a peaceful impact. “If there was no way to educate them to earn a living, that influence would end. They wouldn’t be able to get a job. If they could not get a job, they would again be dependent on their fathers and brothers; and if they were again dependent on their fathers and brothers, they would again be consciously and unconsciously in favor of war.she writes. In the progression of her thought, Woolf ultimately invites women to form a “society of outsiders” Who “would consist of daughters of educated men working […] with their own methods for freedom, equality and peace”. And concludes: “We can best help you prevent war not by repeating your words and following your methods, but by finding new words and creating new methods. »
Virginia Woolf
Three guineas
the sound of time
Translated from English, presentation and notes by Cécile Wajsbrot
Edition: 3,000 copies.
Price: €15; 408 pp.
ISBN: 9782358732048
