{"id":2039,"date":"2025-07-16T18:09:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2025-07-16T18:09:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T15:09:58","slug":"from-a-room-of-ones-own-to-the-communal-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/2025\/07\/16\/from-a-room-of-ones-own-to-the-communal-society\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Room of One’s Own to the Communal Society"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceylan \u00c7a\u011f\u0131r<\/strong><\/p>\n

Virginia Woolf’s fundamental idea in “A Room of One’s Own” was that women need economic and spatial independence in order to unfold their creative and intellectual existence. With her statement “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” she was referring not only to writing, but to any creative activity and intellectual freedom. This room is a space where women can hear their own voice, away from patriarchal oppression\u2014a space of consciousness.<\/p>\n

This space of individual consciousness-raising is both a refuge and a new beginning for women. In this space, women recognize their own selves. She liberates herself from her role as “the Other” and becomes the subject. She is no longer defined, but recognizes herself. However, this individual consciousness-raising is not the ultimate goal. The space drawn by Woolf is a transitional space whose walls must be torn down. For true change begins with the transition from individuality to sociality.<\/p>\n

The thinker of societies, Abdullah \u00d6calan, reminded us in his letter to women, in which he also spoke of the “own room,” of something we all forget from time to time: “to be oneself,” that is, Xweb\u00fbn, to become ourselves. But with what knowledge is it possible to be oneself? With what eyes can one see oneself? As long as hegemonic patriarchal knowledge and the patriarchal gaze dominate, one cannot speak of a state of self-becoming. For this, the fettered mind and the veiled eyes must free themselves. The only way to this liberation is the communal sharing of knowledge. This sharing is manifested in the neolithic society we often speak of, and in its communal way of life, where knowledge is not concentrated in one hand.<\/p>\n

Communal life is a form of life in which individuals share not only resources, but also feelings, work, responsibility, and decisions. In this form of life, sharing and solidarity take the place of possession and competition. For women, this means not only equal rights, but the possibility of existential change. The voice of women, which is suppressed in a patriarchal society, can regain significance in the horizontal relationships of communal society. In this new social structure, women do not merely exist, but they create, provide orientation and transform.<\/p>\n

Woolf’s room is a place of individual consciousness-raising; communal society is the place where this consciousness-raising is collectivized, multiplied, and transforms society. The “I” recognized in this space is the foundation for the “We” in communal life. The woman is both herself and creates space for others. The woman who has a room of her own creates rooms for others.<\/p>\n

The role of women in this new society is not limited to being a “citizen” with equal rights. She is simultaneously a bearer of memory who breaks the silence of the past. She embodies the knowledge of raising a voice from silence and becoming visible from invisibility. This knowledge strengthens collective emotional intelligence and ethical fabric. The experience of women becomes collective knowledge and feeling.<\/p>\n

The role of women in social change and transformation is undoubtedly great. In this regard, Abdullah \u00d6calan’s proposal of Jineoloji was groundbreaking for all of us, to free our thoughts in our own rooms from the distorted notions caused by male dominance and to recognize the reality of women. Jineoloji is a discipline that aims to reevaluate the history, culture, and role of women in society. With this concept, \u00d6calan illuminates the existence of women in society not only from a gender-specific perspective, but as a historical, cultural, and social whole. In doing so, he constantly emphasizes that women’s freedom is inseparably linked to society’s freedom. Our own ideas and feelings are pathways to free individuals and a free society.<\/p>\n

Women cannot simply be understood as preservers of social structures, but play an essential role in their redesign. The active participation of women in social life is possible not only through recognizing their own identity, but also by making this identity the foundation of a collective goal.<\/p>\n

The connection of women to the commune is not merely ideological, but simultaneously a call to be lived in practice. This means that it is about shaping all dynamics of new life\u2014from culture and belief to economics and ecological approaches. Conscious of this claim, women have taken on a creative role in reshaping society in every historical epoch. The process of self-discovery on the way to perceiving this role is an important step for changing social structures and simultaneously contributes to sociality. The metaphor that every woman should create her own space in which she discovers her thoughts, desires, dreams, pains, and fears, and with these discoveries reshapes society and changes the collective consciousness of society, is another term for this.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the process of social change begins with the process of self-discovery. However, this self-discovery is not only an individual gain, but is the foundation for a collective revolution and the construction of a communal society. When we leave our own rooms, we have the power to change not only our own lives, but the entire history of humanity. Virginia Woolf’s room is the first step of a conscious effort to organize the commune. The long-term goal is a democratic, communal, ecological, and women-liberating society.<\/p>\n

First published in Turkish at: https:\/\/yeniyasamgazetesi9.com\/kendine-ait-bir-odadan-komunal-topluma\/<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ceylan \u00c7a\u011f\u0131r Virginia Woolf’s fundamental idea in “A Room of One’s Own” was that women need economic and spatial independence in order to unfold their creative and intellectual existence. With her statement “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” she was referring not only to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-in-the-medias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2041,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/2041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jineoloji.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}