Woolf Specifics

In this course students will read four of Virginia Woolf’s major novels along with selections from her essays, memoirs, and diaries. Through the readings, writing assignments, and class discussions, they will develop an understanding of the range of Woolf's contributions as a writer and social thinker. They will also come to understand how Woolf’s experimental approach to writing relates to her social critique, her ethical vision, and her sense of the nature of reality.

As Trudi Tate points out, Woolf was placed “complexly both on the edges and at the center of circles of real power” (Modernism, History, and the First World War 167). As both a cultural inheritor and an outsider, Woolf was a profound reader of culture as well as of literature. We will discuss her representations of identity, memory, the family, friendship, the body and sexuality. We will also consider her treatment of gender roles and relations, her critique of patriarchy, the class system, the empire, and “Englishness,” her theories of war, and her commitment to pacifism.

This is a writing-intensive course, and students will have the opportunity to learn from Woolf's own experience as a writer and from her observations on the writing process. Woolf experimented with many different kinds of writing – autobiography, criticism, polemics, philosophical and narrative essays, dialogues, character studies, scene-making, monologues, parodies, descriptions of place and ambience. Students will also be encouraged to experiment in their writings for the course, as explained below.

Selected critical essays will help us to see different aspects of Woolf’s work from various modernist, feminist, and postmodernist perspectives. They should also help students to situate their own interests and interpretations in relation to critical models and theoretical methods.

Requirements

Besides completion of the readings on time and regular attendance, the following required components will also be evaluated: class participation; brief (1-2pp.) weekly 'responses' to or commentaries on the readings, to be submitted as a portfolio at the end of the term; a short (5-pp.) paper; a longer (10-12pp.) paper involving research (for which a formal proposal is required; this paper may be a revised and expanded version of the 5-page paper, if a proposal to that effect is approved); a final presentation to the class, based on your longer paper, to take place during exam week. (For details on response pieces and commentaries, and on papers and presentations, click here.)

Evaluation

Approximate breakdown of final grade in the course = 25% portfolio; 20% class participation (besides portfolio contributions); 15% shorter paper; 25% final paper (including proposal); 15% final presentation.

Writing assignments intended for class discussions may not be made up. Deadlines for papers will be extended and absences excused only in the case of a documented personal, family, or medical emergency. Absences from class will limit what you will gain from the course and what you can contribute to it. Unexcused absences also will lower your final grade for the course.

Grades on late papers for which no extension has been granted will be lowered one notch (for example, "B" to "B-") per day of lateness.

Please bear in mind that plagiarism is a serious offense and a violation of the honor policy. Any student found guilty of plagiarism will likely fail the course, in addition to whatever penalties are imposed by the student judicial system. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, ask me. Also, please note that you may not resubmit for credit in this course work that you have done or are doing in another course.