Notes on Virginia Woolf's Greek Classicism and the Intellectual Status of Women

The publication in 1920 of Arnold Bennett’s collection of essays "Our Women: Chapters on the Sex Discord", and its positive review in the New Statesman, led Virginia Woolf to write to the magazine’s editor to criticise Bennett’s main argument that “intellectually and creatively man is the superior of woman.” Woolf challenged the notion of male superiority by referring to a tradition of women writers in literary history and mentioned Sappho, universally regarded as equal to Homer since ancient times, as evidence of women’s intellectual prowess. Woolf’s letters to the New Statesman were published as the essay “The Intellectual Status of Women” and included as Appendix III of the second volume of her letters in 1978. Drawing from Woolf’s claim of “not knowing Greek”, which became the title of her 1925 essay "On not Knowing Greek", I will focus on the author’s critique of Victorian Hellenism with a particular attention on her remarks about women’s education and the Classics. This essay intends to explore the relationship between Woolf, Greek classicism, and her feminist argument about the intellectual status of women. This work will analyse the feminist fil rouge that runs through Woolf's texts and links the author's criticism of Victorian Hellenism with her condemnation of patriarchy.