A Room of One's Own

Woolf begins her lecture by calling out the conventions and expectations for scholarly lectures, while simultaneously subverting them. How would you describe what Woolf is doing here? What kind of writing is this? And how does it differ from traditional academic discourse? Finally, what is the effect of the way she presents her ideas?
I think the way in which Woolf casually subverts the expectations for scholarly lectures makes her essay seem more sound, more relatable, and more personal to her. The way in which the essay is written like a "journal" like we discussed in class (casual yet powerful and effective), elevates her topic on women and fiction. Her metaphor in the first chapter about the fish (which represents an idea) only to be disturbed by a man, is really humorous - she makes casual metaphors like this throughout her essay to show how men have overpowered her.

Woolf also presents herself as a fictional character to the reader as "Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael...". This is humorous yet powerful because Mary is a common named that may often be forgotten, that's why Woolf insists to be called whatever the reader would like to call her. 

Woolf also writes in order to remind the reader that they are reading a piece of fiction - the reader will not be able to forget that they are reading fiction because it is mentioned by Woolf so often. In a traditionally written fictional work, you instantly forget what you're reading may be true or not, because the characters in the book do not remind you that the work is fictional.