We are not afraid of Virginia Woolf: killing the Angel in the House

Abstract

In «Professions for Women», Virginia Woolf tells she had to murder the Angel of the House in order to write. Nevertheless, she does not specify how did she kill this figure, that is the ghost of the hegemonic Victorian femininity. Her text has been read and interpreted in several ways. My aim in this communication is dual. Firstly, I focus on four key aspects of this murder: women’s writing, sexual liberation, the relationship between the private and the public spaces and education. On the other hand, I analyse the transmission of the death of the Angel in the works of Maria Aurèlia Capmany and Virginie Despentes. To conclude, we see how, from the very same Woolf’s idea, two different and opposite feminist positions are articulated.

Keywords: Virginia Woolf, Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Virginie Despentes, Angel of the House, feminism, writing, education, sexual liberation, private space, public space, women, transmission.