Virginia Woolf - bmc.ENGL.B354.001.F20
Section outline
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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 5845If 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
- Feminism in the early 20th century
- Woolf's style of writing
- Modernism in literature
- Modernism in painting
- Queer politics and lifestyles in early 20tth cent
- Woolf’s childhood
- World War I
- 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?
- The Victorian Era and Modernist reactions to i
- Edwardian and Georgian styles (fashion, architecture)
- Technology in early 20th cent. (movies, cars, planes, electricity…)
- Woolf's lovers: Leonard Woolf, Vita Sackville-West
- Race
- British Politics 1880-1940
- British Imperialism
- Freudian Psychology
- 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, Coordinatoremail: dalder@brynmawr.edu
Telephone: 610-526-7351
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Tues: Introduction:
Fri: Mrs. Dalloway, about 50 pages, up to Clarissa talking about Sally Seton, end with the paragraph that begins "All this was only a background for Sally." The paragraph then ends with "when old Joseph and Peter faced them: "Star-gazing?" said Peter.
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Tues: Mrs. Dalloway, another 100 pages (so to p. 154 in my edition), up to a short paragraph: "But Rezia Warren Smith cried, walking down Harley Street, that she did not like that man."
Fri: Another 70 pages , to paragraph beginning "It seemed to her as she drank the sweet stuff..." (about Rezia) and ending "Of her memories, most were happy."
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Tues: Finish Mrs. Dalloway (in my edition, another 70 pages). Also, post one page of research about a topic that would be useful to think about while reading Woolf
Fri: Read Three Guineas, parts 1 and 2.
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Tues: Read the rest of Three Guineas.
Fri: Watch The Hours, a movie available online from the Bryn Mawr Library.
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Tues: Jacob's Room, Sections 1-5
Fri: Finish Jacob's Room.
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Tues: Read To The Lighthouse, up to Section IX of "The Window"
Fri: Read To the Lighthouse, to the end of "Time Passes".
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Tues: First writing assignment due (5 pages). Finish To the Lighthouse.
Fri: Read Orlando, Chapter 1
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Tu: Read Orlando, Chapters 2 and 3.
Fri: No Class
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Tuesday: No class
Friday: Discussion of the current situation on campus.
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Tu: No class
Fri: A meeting to discuss the strike and how we could contribute. No homework to be done for this meeting. Come to the usual zoom meeting for this time or email me your ideas. And ignore the assignments still listed for the rest of the term.
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T: Discuss the article about Virginia Woolf's wearing blackface, available here:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-time-virginia-woolf-wore-blackface
In class we will watch some excerpts from Sally Potter's movie of Orlando, to consider how the movie brings out issues of race and ethnicity that are presented differently in Woolf's novel.
If you would like to write a message to everyone, you can use a forum I set up. Just click HERE.
Fri: Finish reading Orlando, chapters 5 and 6.
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Students mustMark as done
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Fall break
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Tues: Read the first four sections of The Waves, up to p. 147 or just before the italicized passage that begins, "The sun had risen to its full height."
Fri: Read The Waves, two more sections, and then you can skip a section and read the next-to last section.
In other words, read from "The sun had risen to its fill height" through two sections, ending just before the italicized passage "The sun had now sunk lower in the sky". (that would be reading from p. 147 through p. 181). You can skip the next section (or read it if you wish to have taken in the whole book) and start reading again on p. 207, at the italicized passage "The sun was sinking." Read through to the end of that section (p. 235) just before the interlude beginning "Now the sun had sunk".
Here is the link to fill out an evaluation of the course:
ENGL-B354-001 Virginia Woolf https://brynmawr.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8313hxYpJIusjCR
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T: Finish The Waves.
Fri: overview of the course