I have also committed to examining Woolf's work through the lens of disability studies, but will probably not have time to make an additional post about it. Here are the basic reminders from my memory of past research and discussion, without additional research:
1) Virginia Woolf lived through pandemia and became ill with influenza.
2) Woolf also struggled with her mental health. She experienced multiple breakdowns throughout her life and eventually ended her own life. There has been a great deal of speculation about how we might diagnose her today, as well as how her mental state may or may not "explain" her writing. If nothing else, she has clearly incorporated some of her own experiences with the treatment of mental illness into her books.
3) Woolf lived in a time when women's physical and mental health was even less understood than it is now. I am going to HUGELY simplify this issue, but: women were thought to be fundamentally inferior to men for at least a large part of Woolf's life. Additionally, women who behaved "abnormally" ran the risk of being viewed as mentally ill or "hysterical." Hysteria was believed to be rooted in biology (specifically the uterus), exclusive and perhaps inherent to women, and it was used as a tool of control and oppression of women for a very long time (notably to deny women's agency, deem them unfit for education and other opportunities, and gaslight/invalidate them). I do not feel comfortable going further into this in writing without bringing in sources, but it is a crucial part of the conversation if we're going to talk about womanhood, disability, and women's mental and physical health from this time period.
1) Virginia Woolf lived through pandemia and became ill with influenza.
2) Woolf also struggled with her mental health. She experienced multiple breakdowns throughout her life and eventually ended her own life. There has been a great deal of speculation about how we might diagnose her today, as well as how her mental state may or may not "explain" her writing. If nothing else, she has clearly incorporated some of her own experiences with the treatment of mental illness into her books.
3) Woolf lived in a time when women's physical and mental health was even less understood than it is now. I am going to HUGELY simplify this issue, but: women were thought to be fundamentally inferior to men for at least a large part of Woolf's life. Additionally, women who behaved "abnormally" ran the risk of being viewed as mentally ill or "hysterical." Hysteria was believed to be rooted in biology (specifically the uterus), exclusive and perhaps inherent to women, and it was used as a tool of control and oppression of women for a very long time (notably to deny women's agency, deem them unfit for education and other opportunities, and gaslight/invalidate them). I do not feel comfortable going further into this in writing without bringing in sources, but it is a crucial part of the conversation if we're going to talk about womanhood, disability, and women's mental and physical health from this time period.