Reference no: EM133370097

Virginia Woolf wrote an influential essay called "A Room of One's Own." In the essay, she speculates about an imaginary sister Shakespeare might have had: what if this woman existed and also been a writer. In a section of the essay that we're reading in Week Twelve, Woolf wonders if Shakespeare's sister would have been famous or would she have been thwarted in her literary ambitions. Ultimately, Woolf thinks it would have been impossible for Shakespeare's sister to succeed or even dare to write because the demanding intellectual world of "art" was beyond the limited scope of women. So here we are hundreds of years after William Shakespeare lived, still reading his plays, and acknowledging very little art that came from women in that era. How do larger social structures of power influence what we decide is art? For example, there have been powerful recording and publishing industries that used to serve as the only gatekeepers for music and literature. This is changing, but in what ways do you see constraints (including racism, sexism, money, education) on what art is available and how art is valued? Related, you can also consider if The Tempest offers any real value for you--is this literature that speaks to the human experience today?