Quotation help: defend domestic fiction.

August 27, 2009 12:07 PM

Quotation help: A vaguely remembered snippet about so-called domestic fiction.

Specifically, that domestic fiction is or historically has been looked down upon by male critics because by definition it deals mostly with women, home life and the running of households, rather than tackling "big themes" like war or business or other such manly pursuits. Not much to go on, but I think it's actually a pretty well known observation. Please help me stave off a senior moment (for which I am much too young).

posted by scratch to writing & language (3 comments total)

Was it Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own? (quoted here)?

"This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room. A scene in a battlefield is more important than a scene in a shop."
posted by rollick at 1:42 PM on August 27 [1 favorite]

That's the one! Brilliant, thanks Rollick!
posted by scratch at 1:49 PM on August 27

The full text can be found here, with the quote in part four.
posted by rollick at 2:00 PM on August 27