If you want to make sense of modernity, modernism and modern life, the works of Virginia Woolf remain essential reading. This module will explore the genesis of Woolf's fiction alongside a representative range of her theoretical, critical and autobiographical writings, all of which have been central to theorising and inscribing cultures of modernity, modern living, and modernist aesthetics. A range of texts including 'Modern Fiction', 'Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown' , A Room of One's Own, Three Guineas, 'A Sketch of the Past', 'Thoughts on Peace in an Air-Raid', will be read in terms of cultures of modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde and in relation to other relevant theories such as gender, sexuality and feminism; and in relation to relevant cultural events (such as the Post-impressionist Exhibitions of 1910 and 1912 and so on).

10 weekly 2 hour seminars

none

None

1 essay of up to 5,000 words  

The aims of this course are to:

study a representative range of Virginia Woolf's fictional, theoretical, critical and autobiographical writings, all of which have become central to theorising and inscribing cultures of modernity, modern living, and modernist aesthetics

examine the genesis of Woolf's fiction writing from her early experimental stories and her first novel, The Voyage Out to her final posthumously published novel, Between the Acts.

read these texts in terms of cultures of modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde and in relation to other relevant theories such as gender, sexuality and feminism; and in relation to relevant cultural events (such as the Post-impressionist Exhibitions of 1910 and 1912, and so on).

use this basis to inform reading and research in these and Woolf's other writings, and/or the writings of other modern(ist) authors

At the end of the course students will be able to:

■ criticise the genesis of Woolf's fiction writing from her early experimental stories and her first novel, The Voyage Out to her final posthumously published novel, Between the Acts.

■ explore Woolf's theoretical, critical and autobiographical writings in relation to theories of cultures of modernity, modernism, and the avant-garde and in relation to other relevant theories such as gender, sexuality, feminism, post-colonialism, postmodernism; and in relation to relevant cultural events (such as the Post-impressionist Exhibitions of 1910 and 1912, and so on).

■ pursue these theories through reading and research in these and Woolf's other writings, and/or the writings of other modern(ist) authors

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.