Introduction of The Left-handed Woman: The Left-handed Woman was written by Peter Handke, a male writer who wrote this novel to take on the life and inner world of an independent woman. In the novel, Anna tried to break up with her husband under the condition that there was nothing wrong with him and their relation superficially, but in reality, Anna felt that she was fettered by the family and the patriarchal society. So, she began to introspect the life she was experienced and the relationship between herself and her husband, then she decided to live alone at the expense of loneliness and alienation to find her own life outside the role of traditional woman - as the husband's wife and the children's mother. At the same time, Anna picked up the job as a translator again as before when she was not married to support herself and her boy, she refused her friend’s invitation to join in a women 's right club, and she refused the publisher ‘s woo because she thought that he still wanted to bring her under his patriarchal shadow. As a matter of fact, Anna' s decision to detect her inner world was an action of rebellion at that period, this action leaded to her husband ‘s bitter irony, he regarded her as “a mysticist who has fallen into the devil”. But this was also what Peter Handke meant to tell the reader: A woman should not live in the world that the society and the male put them in, and the woman must have a pilgrim soul to find the inner truth even this needs the expense of loneliness, a woman must have “her own room”, a room of both material and spiritual.

Introduction of Virginia Woolf’ s A Room of One’s Own 

In this book, Virginia Woolf stated her point of view towards feminism through her exquisite imaginary and analysis of female’s condition in reality. At first, Woolf made herself a name-Mary, and imagined that she went to Oxford , Cambridge and the library, ironically , Mary was treated unfairly in all of these places just because that she was a female, no matter how much knowledge she had, no matter how much she wanted to get close to the  books, she was just refused in these places which had only accesses to the male. Then the writer made a bitter  effort she was just refused in these places which had only accesses to the male. Then the writer made a bitter effort to find the truth in the sea of literature that was wrote by the male, unfortunately, female under the male ‘s discourse power and their prejudice pen were said to be foolish, born to satisfy the tastes of male and used to set off the excellence of them. Besides, Woolf also introduced the imagined figure- William Shakespeare’s sister to the reader, she was as brilliant as her brother, she had the same affection for literature, she had the same dream of adventure. But all of these just leaded to her father ‘s blame, and she may write something meaningful in the attic that not belong to her own and then hided all of these hand scripts in a secret corner, under her quiet passion flowed a river of great talent, the talent leaded nothing but a designated marriage of patriarchal society and a spiteful desire from the director of the theater. Actually, the tragedy of Shakespeare ‘s sister was definitely not an occasional incident in the patriarchal society, under this condition, a room of one’s own and a large sum of property was needed for a woman who wanted to have her own independent thought. At last, Woolf proposed that a mind of androgyny was wanted to help give full play to the advantages of women, then the women had the strength to search for inner independence and to build up their own career.

Feminism in The-Left-Handed Woman

The Need of “a Room of one’s Own”: From Virginia Woolf ‘s point of view “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” [1]. And then, the writer imagines the writing condition of some female novelists and poets. The middle- class family in the early nineteenth century was possessed only of a single sitting-room. Woman never have an half hour that they can call their own’ - she was always interrupted. Jane Austen wrote like that to the end of her days. ‘How she was able to affect all this’, her nephew writes in his Memoir, ‘is surprising, for she had no separate study to repair to, and most of the work must have been done in the general sitting- room, subject to all kinds of casual interruptions. She was careful that her occupation should not be suspected by servants or visitors or any persons beyond her own family party’ [1].

For one thing, a room of a woman ‘s own is a difficulty in nineteenth century of western society, for another thing, the author of this paper thinks that the “room” is not only a room of material but also a room of mental, it means a space for a woman to think and write independently. 

From the very beginning of The-Left-handed Woman, Handke tells the reader that she was thirty and lived in a terraced bungalow colony on the south slope of a low mountain range in western Germany, just above the fumes of a big city. She had brown hair and gray eyes, which sometimes lit up even when she wasn't looking at anyone, without her face changing in any other way. Late one winter afternoon she was sitting at an electric sewing machine, in the yellow light that shone into the large living room from outside. One entire side of the room consisted of a single pane of glass, looking out on the windowless wall of a neighboring house and on a grass-overgrown terrace with a discarded Christmas tree in the middle of it. Beside the woman sat her eight-year-old son, bent over his copy-book, writing a school essay at a walnut table [2]. From this narration, the reader could find that this is a normal life state of a woman, and the woman has even no name, just called “she”, she is a woman of middle class, doing something that the male and patriarchal society hopes her to do, sewing, for example. Contrasting with the women in Victorian period, she finally has a decent room, but she has to do the endless housework and take care of her child, and it is noteworthy that she is a woman whose gray eyes sometimes lit up, this is to say that she has her own thinking. In the later part, after separating with her husband, she takes up a work as a translator, she tells her friend “But I’d like to start translating again. At the publishing house where I used to work, they kept me busy with the foreign contracts. But when I left, the boss said I could do books. He’s been making me offers ever since” [2]. Actually, readers could find that the woman has her own spiritual pursuit, she’d like to create, translating books is a kind of creation. 

Above all, the Victorian English women writers don't have a room of her own, and now, the middle class German woman has a decent room, but strictly speaking, it cannot be called as a room of her own , but just a house, the woman is “an angle in the house”, living as the patriarchal society hoped, her life is fettered by the society, her husband, even her child. Still, the Victorian women writers realize their talents and the needs of expressing themselves through writing, so they make every effort to write something in the chaotic sitting -room and hide it away, the left-handed woman also tries to write something according to her own will, even at the expense of living away from her husband. In this way, the heroine Anna has an awareness of self-retrospection and the identity of an independent working woman, this is what Woolf hope the women to fight for in her A Room of One’ s Own.

Dilemma and Rebellion 

The Witch & The Private Mystic: There is no doubt that there must be some women who possess with a great gift of literature, but the talent for a woman in sixteenth century England could not bring her happiness, but disaster. During that period, the women who do not confirm to the male dominated discourse power will be regarded as witches and treated cruelly. So, there is an imagined talented girl- the sister of William Shakespeare in Woolf’ s A Room of One’s Own. The force of her own gift alone drove her to it. She made up a small parcel of her belongings, let herself down by a rope one summer’s night and took the rode to London. She had the quickest fancy, a gift like her brother’ s, for the tune of words. Like him, she had a taste for the theatre. She stood at the stage door; she wanted to act, she said. Men laughed in her face. The manager hinted- you can imagine what [1]. And the girl’s destiny is clear to be unfortunate - who shall measure the heat and violence of the poet’ s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’ s body? - killed herself one winter ‘s night and lies buried at some cross-roads where the omnibuses now stop outside the Elephant and Castle [1]. From this image, Woolf draws a conclusion that any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at [1].

While, by the twentieth century, in The Left-handed Woman, the heroine who has the talent of translating and wants to pursuit her own life also gets a new ironic name from her husband “a private mystic”. During the ten years with her husband, Anna’ s life was surrounded by the trivial about her husband and her housework, and when she makes up her mind to seek independence and consciousness of female awakening, her husband feels that she is out of his control, and he treats Anna as cruel as it was in the fourteenth to eighteenth century in England. He struck out, but the phone booth was too cramped, and he didn't really hit her. He laughed. “Do you know what she says you are? A private mystic. She’ s right. You are a mystic. Damn it, you’ re sick. I told Franziska a bit of electroshock would straighten you out” [[2]].

In addition, what readers should pay attention to is that in this novel, Anna is under the shadow of discourse power of all the males and they all don't agree with Anna' s rebellion. Firstly, Bruno thinks that Anna should receive the role that given to her by the patriarchal society, and Anna should confirm to his male aesthetic standard. when they are eating out, he says to her that “I would like to wear your low-cut dress” [2]. But after they breaking up, there is a moment that Anna observes herself from the mirror. She took a long silk dress from the closet. At the mirror she tried on a string of pearls but took them right off again [2]. From this narration, the reader could see the course that Anna looking for herself, she decides to get rid of her husband ‘s aesthetic standard of her. The same oppression of male dominance also comes from the publisher, when they talk to each other, the publisher tries to express his fondness for her, but this love is also derived from a patriarchal thought that female is living to be appreciated by the male, and a female must get herself into another love affair after breaking up with her husband. And from her father’ s point of view, Anna would spend too much to exchange for independence and self-awareness. So that in her diary Anna writes that “Up until now all men have weakened me. My husband says: ‘Michele is strong.’ The truth is that he wants me to be strong in connection with things that don't interest him: the children, the household, taxes. But when it comes to the work I hope to do, he destroys me. He says: ‘My wife is a dreamer.’ If wanting to be what I am is a dreaming, then I want to be a dreamer” [2]. All in all, from all the men’ s point of view, Anna' s actions are not in line with the beautiful image of “angle in the house” that the patriarchal society gives.

Androgynous Feminism

In Woolf’ s work, a woman of “wholeness” should have the androgynous character. In Woolf ‘s speculation, to sketch a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man’ s brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman’ s brain the woman predominates over man. The normal and comfortable state of being is when the two live in harmony together, spiritually cooperating. If one is a man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her [1].

In The Left-handed Woman, Anna’ s rebellion is manifested by her androgynous character, and this character can be seen from her consciousness of self-discovery, the way she reaches it and the courage to support herself through working instead of relying on the male. 

The heroine Anna has both female’s power and male’s power in her mind, First of all, she tends to discover herself from a female ‘s point of view instead of accepting the views of patriarchal society passively, this can be seen as a sensitive femininity. However, the way she takes to detect herself is very calm and sober, and she doesn't stress on the grievance and to plead even with justice any cause; in any way to speak consciously as a woman like Virginia Woolf says when she refers to the limitation of female, this is a kind of masculine thinking. From long term of Anna’ s finding of herself, Peter Handke just gives her a mirror, everything she feels confused and lost comes this mirror to lead her to think about the meaning of life and the bring her the consciousness of feminism. For example, after her husband’s threaten and fury, she turns to the mirror for help. At home the woman stood at the hall mirror and looked into her eyes-not to see anything special but as a way of calmly thinking about herself [2]. From this self-introspection, Anna draws a conclusion that “I don't care what you people think. The more you have to say about me, the freer I will be of you. From now on, if anyone tells me what I’m like, even if it's to flatter or encourage me, I’ll take it as an insult and refused to listen” [2]. In this way, the mirror is a symbol of Anna’ s self-discovery. Thus, the awakening of Anna and her method is a mixture of female’s power and male’s power.

About women’ s self-realization, Woolf mentions that most of the professions have been open to you for close on ten years now? When you reflect upon these immense privileges and the length of time during which they have been enjoyed, and the effect that there must be at this moment some two thousand women capable of earning over five hundred a year in one way another, you will agree that the excuse of lack of opportunity, training, encouragement, leisure, and money no longer holds good [1]. 

In A Room of One’s Own, the reader may find that there is a woman gets Woolf’ s approval on large extend, that is Mrs. Behn. And with Mrs. Behn we turn a very important corner on the road. Mrs. Behn was a middle-class woman with all the plebeian virtues of humor, vitality, and courage; a woman forced by the death of her husband and some unfortunate adventures of her own to make her living by her wits. She had to work on equal terms with men. she made, by working hard, enough to live on. The importance of that fact outweighs anything that she actually wrote [1]. During Anna’ s period, it is also difficult for a woman to get rid of her husband’s limitation and the patriarchal society’s bind to earn a living by working her own. The decision needs great courage which beyond a normal woman who lives under the dominance of patriarchal oppression for a long term, so that Anna’ s courage to take up a work to support herself and the children is also a mixture of a female’ s prudence and a male’ s bravery. In this sense, Anna’ s character bears some resemblance with Woolf’ s androgynous figure.

In 1928, Mary in Woolf’ s A Room of One’s Own was stopped from universities and libraries, while in 1970s Anna under the pen of Peter Handeke could finally drove the car to pick up her husband, could have her own career as a translator and could get the pay to support herself. However, they were all met with great difficulties during the ideological awaking. 

Most noteworthy, Anna was a rebellious female created by the male writer, which was a great breakthrough, the left hand was a  metaphor of  rebellion, when defined as a wife and mother by the traditions of the society, she tried her best to break up with her husband and stick to herself to start her own career, which can be seen as a disintegration of the social role of the female. At last, she was able to have a dialogue equally with the men around her. 

Therefore, it is very important for a woman to have a room of her own and self-consciousness in the modern society, this means the courage to be “left- handed” and to have an androgynous character.

1. Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. London: Penguin Books, 1945.

2. Handke, Peter. The Left-Handed Woman. Translated by Ralph Manheim, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2018.