Writing Rooms: Reconsidering the Notion of a Room of One's Own

Abstract

Writing rooms, whether permanently situated or temporarily constructed in transit, have a long history of allowing writers an escape from daily obligations and distractions in order to focus on the task at hand. This essay considers these interiors from a feminist perspective informed by the process of cultural analysis. Here, I argue that, particularly for women, the writing room is a retreat that allows for the solitary reflection necessary for the writing process. Often, what we write is influenced by where we write. Evidence for this is found in close readings informed by the concepts of mise–en–scene and place making of a representative selection of six photographs of writing rooms where I have worked. The following theorists and writers inform my analysis: Mieke Bal, Tim Cresswell, Rebecca Solnit, Yi–Fu Tuan, and Virginia Woolf. For all their obvious differences, what makes these writing rooms productive is that, in their own way, all have been environments free from distraction that have been able to provide the calm and quiet that has allowed writing to flourish.