Section outline

  • Virginia Woolf

    English 354, Virginia Woolf

    Tuesdays and Fridays 11:10-12:30

    Michael Tratner

    Email: mtratner@brynmawr.edu


    Here is the link to fill out an evaluation for the course:

     ENGL-B354-001             Virginia Woolf         https://brynmawr.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8313hxYpJIusjCR


    This course will be conducted online via zoom.  We will meet on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:10 AM to 12:30 PM. Here is the zoom link to connect to the class on those days and times: 


    Join URL: 

    https://brynmawr-edu.zoom.us/j/9410447584

    If your computer doesn't work, you can join class by phone.  You can use any of the phone numbers listed here, and you will need to put in the "meeting id" when you connect by phone:
    Dial by your location
            +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
            +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
            +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
            +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
            +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
            +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
    Meeting ID: 941 0447 5845


     

    If you have any questions about the course please contact me at mtratner@brynmawr.edu and I will set up a zoom session for us to talk. 


    If you wish to talk with me at any time, email me and I will set up a zoom session. 

    Since the readings in this class are all by the same author, it could seem that we are simply worshipping at the altar of a great genius. That would not leave much room for us, for our points of view. Part of what makes Woolf worth reading, however, is that it is impossible to just see her books as they are: her works appear quite different to different persons, and what others notice about a book can be more interesting that what you notice yourself.   Woolf’s novels often cause people to feel the need to learn from others to makes sense of them, and I suggest that she writes in a way that makes reading a collaborative experience, rather than something done entirely in private. 


     I would like us to see how much we can make our classroom a place for such collaboration, by having each of us become a resource for everyone else in the class.  In order to do this, we will have a forum when everyone can post comments as they wish.  Here is the link to this forum: 

    Forum for posting comments outside of class meetings


    For the forum, you will each select at the beginning of the term a “lens” through which to look at the works (for example, “Woolf’s childhood,” or “early twentieth-century queer lifestyles”).  You will not be limited to commenting through that lens and you are not responsible for finding everything that such a lens would reveal.  You just take responsibility for putting on that lens for some of the time as you read, for noticing when elements in a book are particularly significant through that lens and bringing up such moments in class discussion.  You also take responsibility to start discussion of that topic, and one way to do that is to do a bit of research, to find something on one of the library databases or on the internet that extends your knowledge of that topic—and to share this research with others in class.  I will try to bring up topics no one chooses and to present some of my own research.  Here is a list of possible topics, organized into general categories and put in no particular order. You can also come up with your own topic, combine more than one of these, or narrow one even more. Woolf’s parents—To the Lighthouse

    1.   Feminism in the early 20th century
    2.   Woolf's style of writing 
    3.    Modernism in literature
    4.    Modernism in painting
    5.    Queer politics and lifestyles in early 20tth cent
    6.    Woolf’s childhood
    7.    World War I 
    8.    Overall reception of Woolf’s books—which were most popular when they came out? Which now sell the most? Which       gather the most critical commentary?
    9.  The Victorian Era and Modernist reactions to i
    10.   Edwardian and Georgian styles (fashion, architecture)
    11.   Technology in early 20th cent. (movies, cars, planes, electricity…)
    12.  Woolf's lovers: Leonard Woolf, Vita Sackville-West
    13.  Race 
    14.  British Politics 1880-1940
    15.  British Imperialism 
    16.   Freudian Psychology
    17.  Keynesian economics

    Assignments: 1) Class participation is important: everyone is responsible for bringing to the discussion both a “lens” for reading Woolf and some general reactions to the materials.

    2) By Frioday of the Third week, everyone will type up one page of findings from research on their topic, to spark discussion.  Bring the page to class; this is an ungraded assignment.

    3) 20 pages of papers, which can be divided up as you wish.  There are deadlines throughout the term, but at each deadline you can either turn in a finished paper or pages which will become part of a longer work (those pages can then be notes or outlines or rough drafts of sections).  I will meet with each of you after each deadline to discuss what you turn in—and I am available to meet with you any other time as you work up your ideas.  By the end of the course, the total of 20 pages has to be made up of finished essays (in other words, notes and drafts in themselves do not “count” toward the final total, but they “count” as meeting the interim deadlines).

                   NOTE: YOU CAN MAKE  A CREATIVE WORK as part of your papers; such a work will be worth 5 pages toward the 20 pages for the overall class.  For a creative work, you can make a drawing, a painting, a video, a poem, an object, etc..  You MUST ALSO INCLUDE a set of footnotes that help a viewer understand your work--especially explaining how your work is an act of criticism, a reaction to something we read.  To add footnotes to a creative work without distracting, I suggest you make a copy of the work, which might take the form of a photograph of a drawing or a xerox of a poem; on the copy, put numbers that indicate spots which footnotes explain.  Then attach a set of notes that explain what you "mean" to be communicating at each of those spots and how some or all of those spots provide reactions to something we read.    

                  If you need an extension for any of the interim deadlines, please contact me before the date (either tell me after class or email me).     The final deadline cannot be extended except by contacting your dean and arranging an incomplete in the course. 

    Tuesday, October 20:  a minimum of 5 pages

    Tuesday, November 19:  an additional 5 pages (i.e., a total of 10 pages at this point)

    End of Exam period: however many pages you need  to make the finished total of  20 pages

    Students with disabilities are welcome in the class.  The Access Services office in Guild Hall provides support and reasonable accommodations for eligible students with disabilities. Individuals who think they may need accommodations because of a learning, physical, or psychological disability are encouraged to contact the Coordinator of Access Services as early as possible to discuss their concerns. 

    Access Services
    Bryn Mawr College
    Eugenia Chase Guild Hall 
    101 N. Merion Ave.
    Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
    Deb Alder, Coordinator

    email: dalder@brynmawr.edu

    Telephone: 610-526-7351