Resumen de The misogynist context in Virginia Woolf’s literary criticism of Margaret Cavendish
- español
La duquesa Margaret Cavendish, autora de la Inglaterra de mediados del siglo xvii, publicó veintitrés obras (incluyendo segundas ediciones revisadas y colecciones) durante su vida. Como figura pública, no pudo escapar de las críticas a sus obras ni del hecho de ser mujer-escritora. La compilación ginocrítica de Virginia Woolf en los albores del siglo xx, la recupera en dos libros:.Common Reader (1925) y A Room of One’s Own (1929). En ambos casos podemos leer abiertamente una crítica negativa, cuando no positiva, sobre la escritora cortesana. Argumentaré en este capítulo que la crítica publicada con anterioridad y el sesgado enfoque científico contemporáneo a Woolf la llevaron irremediablemente a una lectura desfavorable. Para ello, revisaremos diacrónicamente algunos ejemplos de críticas sobre la Duquesa. Se destaca que el mero hecho del instinto de Woolf por recuperar a Cavendish del olvido sirvió también para reforzar su reputación como ensayista feminista, aunque quedara atrapada en el tópico patriarcal contemporáneo de lectura de mujeres y hacer ciencia.
- English
Duchess Margaret Cavendish, author of the mid-17th century England, published twenty-three works (including revised second editions and collections) during her lifetime. As a public figure, she could not escape from critical reviews of her works as well as the fact of being a woman-writer. Virginia Woolf’s gynocritical compilation work at the dawn of the 20th century, retrieved Cavendish in two books: Common Reader (1925) and A Room of One’s Own (1929). In both cases, contrary to what one might expect, we can overtly read a negative, if at least not positive criticism on the courtly writer. I will argue that the earlier critical texts and the biased contemporary scientific approach irremediably led.Woolf to that unfavourable reading. In order to do so, we review diachronically some examples of criticisms on the Duchess. It is noted too that the very fact of.Woolf’s instinct to recover Cavendish from oblivion also served to reinforce her reputation as a feminist essayist, even if she was trapped in her contemporary patriarchal cliché of reading women and doing science.
