In addition to being one of the major novelists of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf was also an incisive literary critic, an influential editor and publisher, a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a prolific diarist, and a public figure whose lectures and essays re-shaped the discourse on women’s roles in literature and society. This course is a close study of Woolf’s major works—Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves—with a special focus on her contributions to Modernism and the pioneering narrative technique of stream of consciousness. We will explore the historical, cultural, and biographical contexts of her work, but our main focus will be the study of craft. How is time assembled, alchemized, in her novels? How is interiority mapped onto landscape? Gender onto history? Does her interplay with historical texts come to inform her work’s modernity? And how is consciousness—that fickle and involuntary phenomenon of perception—approximated in language, on the level of the sentence? Engaging critically with Woolf’s work, major projects will include a midterm paper and the assembly of a semester-long reading diary that uses Woolf’s own diaries, letters, and criticism as a model for their creation.
Learning Outcomes:
1) Gain an understanding of Virginia Woolf’s profound impact on literature in the English language and beyond and of her important role in Modernism.
2) Explore the relationships among history, culture, gender, and aesthetics in the major works of Virginia Woolf.
3) Gain comfort with and fluency in Woolf’s style and analyze the implications of her stylistic breakthroughs.
4) Examine the influence of philosophy and painting on Woolf’s writings.
5) Examine Woolf’s influence on subsequent writers.
6) Write well-researched, deeply observant essays that explore the craft and context of Woolf’s major novels.
Delivery Method: Fully in-person
Prerequisites:
Apply with a statement of interest and sample critical essay, submitted via this form by November 15, 2024. Students will be notified of acceptance into this class by November 19, 2024.
Corequisites: Students are required to attend all Literature Evenings and Poetry at Bennington events this term, commonly held at 7pm on most Wednesday evenings.
Course Level: 4000-level
Credits: 4
Tu 2:10PM - 5:50PM (Full-term)
Maximum Enrollment: 17
Course Frequency: One time only
Categories: 4000 , All courses , Four Credit , Fully In-Person , Literature , New Courses , Updates
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