Feminine Aesthetics and the Architecture of Self: Reimagining Space in A Room of One’s Own

Abstract

Virginia Woolf's idea of a "room" goes beyond its literal definition to serve as a potent metaphor for intellectual freedom, emotional depth, and creative self-expression. A Room of One's Own, drawing attention to feminine aesthetics and Henri Lefebvre's spatial theory, illustrates how space can be a transformative force in shaping female subjectivity and fostering creative autonomy. The primary question is how feminine aesthetics, characterised by fluidity, diversity, and emotional resonance, interact with spatial consciousness to create a person who defies patriarchal limits. This study depicts feminist aesthetics and spatial analysis of A Room of One's Own to demonstrate how Woolf's writing challenges traditional, masculine patterns of storytelling. Her use of silence, memory, and imagined genealogies serves as a way to reclaim women's histories that have been erased. In this context, the room serves as both a private refuge and a creative architectural space where the self is formed, recalled, and remade. Woolf presents a new paradigm of female identity based on aesthetic experience and spatial awareness, one that is self-authored, emotionally anchored, and intellectually liberated. This paper discusses that A Room of One's Own remains a seminal feminist novel that reimagines both space and self through a separate gendered and artistic lens.