While most today remember Virginia Woolf primarily as a literary artist, there are numerous ways of approaching Woolf. We’ll use the four themes below to structure our approach.
- Biography
She was a fascinating individual in and of herself, a brilliant intellectual, social critic and artist. Furthermore, although she might be considered an “exemplary life,” her work invites us to complicate our approach to biography, and to approach any interpretation of “a life” with caution.
- Bloomsbury & modernism
We might want to learn more about Bloomsbury, that group of progressive artists and thinkers who helped to define modernism through their contributions to writing (E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey), ideas (Maynard Keynes), and art (Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, and Dora Carrington).
- History, war & empire
We can also turn to her for insights into the broader social movements and events of her time: WWI & WWII, women’s suffrage, decline of Empire, labor developments and the general transition from the Victorian to the modern era.
- Feminism & sexuality
Woolf’s ideas on women and feminism provide persistent resonance with contemporary theories and ideas on gender and sexuality.
I’ll ask each student to choose one of the four areas listed above as a focus. You’ll be expected to do some additional reading on the area in her journals, fiction or essays, and to complete a short paper on the topic. You’ll also be responsible for facilitating discussions on our online discussion forum where everyone will be asked to offer responses on the topic and class readings. Alongside these thematic interests we'll also consider Woolf's relationship to Modernism and her many contributions as a literary artist and critic through readings of her major novels and selected essays.
Please understand that these four areas will overlap. I encourage students to consider intersections and complications in your approach (i.e. What is the relationship between Woolf's thinking about war and feminism?).