
The Shared Condition of Individual Thought
Beside delving into the role of women writers in literature that extolled the creative genius of a single (id)entity, Virginia Woolf’s writerly gesture here is a deconstruction of the glorifying vision of individualistic creativity and highlights the importance of emulated collective thought emanating from “the body of the people.” However, collective thought and being aware of the multiple intellectual heritage of our reflections (which are not wholly our own) are two very different notions. It is a matter, then, of opening a debate on the distinction between shared thought and collective thought.