Virginia Woolf - Life and Writing

label Diverse calendar_month 2013-02-11, 00:00 autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Maria Dumitru

Get to know one of the 20th century's most influential literary innovators, Virginia Woolf by bringing this incredible author and her era to life in the city she lived, worked and loved in.Drawing from her fiction, essays, diaries, and extensive letters, we will venture into the complex world of literary genius, mental illness, and cutting edge ideas about gender and sexuality, gaining a unique insight into Woolf's radical innovations in literary technique as well as her culturally complex approach to gender and sexuality.

A great benefit for anyone keen to broaden their understanding of an important period in literary history, we'll visit the key places of relevance to enhance our understanding of Woolf and the historic cultural moment she occupied, depicted, and transformed through her art. We will visit Hyde Park and the places she grew up in, Gordon Square Garden, a favourite spot for stimulating conversations that contributed to the vibrancy and innovations of the Bloomsbury set as well as the Reading Room of The British Museum, and even a day's visit to Charleston: Artist Home and Garden, in East Sussex.The course consists of the following:

Week 1: Literary introduction to Woolf and the Bloomsbury thinkers as they contributed to the Modernist movement. In lectures, discussions, in-class writing and local London site-visits, we will focus on Woolf's themes and literary innovations. Texts: A Room of One's Own, To The Lighthouse.

Week 2: Gender and sexuality theories of Woolf's time and her biographical connection to those concerns. In lectures, discussions, and in-class projects, we will focus on Woolf's challenge to the dominant cultural constructs of gender, sexuality, and relationships. Text: Orlando.

Week 3: Woolf and the contemporary world. We will take up the question of how Woolf is studied in contemporary literary studies. In lectures, discussions, film-viewing, and in-class writing, we will explore the way in which contemporary tribute works elucidate Woolf's life and writing. Text: Mrs. Dalloway.

Period
01-07-2013 - 19-07-2013 (3 weeks)

Target group
This course will benefit students of 20th century literature, sexuality and gender studies, and anyone wanting to deepen their skills in literary analysis and writing or wanting to broaden their understanding of an important period in literary history.

Course aim
From this course you will gain the following knowledge:

- Develop an understanding of Virginia Woolf as an important 20th century Modernist writer and thinker.



- Acquire knowledge of her political and cultural context

- England, London, and specifically the Bloomsbury group.

- Examine the modernist literary innovations in her fiction.

- Gain an appreciation for the ways in which her thinking and writing challenged then-prominent conceptions of gender and sexuality.

You will have the opportunity to visit numerous locations of interest, including Hyde Park where Woolf grew up, Tavistock Square, Mecklenburgh Square, and Fitzroy Square, places Woolf lived at various points in her literary career. We will also visit Gordon Square Garden, a favorite spot for stimulating conversations that contributed to the vibrancy and innovations that marked the art and literature of the loosely-connected Bloomsbury set. A visit to the Reading Room of The British Museum will accompany our discussion of Woolfs A Room of Ones Own. Additionally, we may visit specific London locations referenced in Mrs. Dalloway, and Orlando.

Credits
7.5 ECTS creditstuition fee only

Course fee
GBP 1350: tuition fee only

Course leader
Dr Wendy Weber received her PhD with a focus on 20th century British and American literature. For the past 12 years, she has taught literature and writing courses at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA). The gay and lesbian literature cou

King's College London
Address: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533