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Lecturer(s)
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Krajíčková Veronika, Mgr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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Week 1: Introduction to Woolf Reading: "22 Hyde Park Gate," "Old Bloomsbury" Week 2: Woolf and theories of materiality Reading: short fiction - "The Mark on the Wall," "Solid Objects," "The Fascination of the Pool," "A Simple Melody" Week 3: Woolf and the poetics of space and time Reading: Mrs Dalloway Week 4: Woolf and psychoanalysis Reading: To the Lighthouse Week 5: Woolf, queer theory, and the concepts of identity Reading: Orlando Week 6: Woolf and feminism Reading: A Room of One's Own Week 7: Woolf and animal studies Reading: Flush, "Kew Gardens" Week 8: Woolf, ecocritical thought and consumerism Reading: essays "An Evening Over Sussex: Reflections in a Motor Car," "The Docks of London," "Thunder at Wembley," "Oxford Street Tide" Week 9: Woolf and the "proto-postmodern" and "postcolonial" novel Reading: The Waves Week 10: Woolf and posthumanism Reading: "Time Passes" (To the Lighthouse), natural interludes from The Waves, essay "The Sun and the Fish," "Flying over London" Week 11: Woolf and her personal philosophy Reading: "A Sketch of the Past," "The New Biography," "On Being Ill," Week 12: Woolf, the war and pacifism Reading: Three Guineas Week 13: Woolf and community Reading: Between the Acts
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Monologic (reading, lecture, briefing), Dialogic (discussion, interview, brainstorming), Work with text (with textbook, with book), Demonstration
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Learning outcomes
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This course focuses on the modernist woman writer Virginia Woolf and her novels, short fiction, and essays. Its objective is not only to introduce the author's opus as it gradually evolved stylistically and thematically but mainly to provide an insight into contemporary critical approaches to her fiction. In this way, the students will be encouraged to explore various critical frames which they might later apply to their own research. Moreover, this conception of the seminar allows students to discover the diversity of methodological approaches that might be utilized in relation to a single author. The first sessions of the seminar will focus on Woolf´s short fiction in relation to object-oriented ontology and process philosophy, her masterpiece To the Lighthouse read from psychoanalytic perspective, the novel Orlando related to queer theory and concepts of identity and her feminist manifesto A Room of One´s Own, which would introduce the feminist thought. The following sessions would be concerned with Woolf´s novel The Waves and its proto-postmodern nature and concept of interpersonal identity, animal studies in relation to Flush, a biography narrated from a dog's point of view, posthuman nature of the passage "Time Passes" and natural interludes in The Waves and Woolf´s proto-ecological thinking and discussion of consumerism in several of her essays. The last sessions would focus on Woolf´s philosophy of interconnection outlined in "A Sketch of the Past" and further developed in Three Guineas and Between the Acts. As a result, the seminar provides a summary of critical approaches to Woolf's works and at the same time analyses the topics of materiality, gender, the posthuman, social justice and community that have dominated recent conferences and academic papers on Woolf.
The seminar should provide an overall picture of Virginia Woolf's oeuvre, however, it should also introduce various methodological approaches (either critical or thematic) which students might apply while writing their BA or MA thesis, regardless of the author they are focusing on.
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Prerequisites
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No prerequisites.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Essay
attendance (maximum 3 absences), active participation, short oral presentation (maximum 15 minutes), final essay (1,500-2,000 words) When submitting their essays, students must meet the deadline required by the teacher. If the essay fails, students have one more chance to resubmit it.
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Recommended literature
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ALT, Christina. Virginia Woolf and the Study of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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BEER, Gillian. Virginia Woolf: the Common Ground. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
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HUSSEY, Mark. The Singing of the Real World: The Philosophy of Virginia Woolf?s Fiction. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1986.
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LEE, Hermione. The Novels of Virginia Woolf. London: Methuen & Co Ltd., 1977.
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LEE, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. London: Vintage, 1997.
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RYAN, Derek, and Stephen Ross, eds. The Handbook to the Bloomsbury Group. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
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SELLERS, Susan, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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WAUGH, Patricia, ed. Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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WOOLF, Virginia. A haunted House and Other Short Stories. Repr. (1982). London: Triad Grafton Book, 1988.
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WOOLF, Virginia a Morag SHIACH. A Room of One's Own: Three Guineas. Oxford: Oxford University Press,, 1992.
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WOOLF, Virginia. Between the Acts. Repr. (1953). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1974. Penguin Modern Classics., 1974.
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WOOLF, Virginia. Monday or Tuesday. London: Hesperus Press, 2003.
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WOOLF, Virginia. The Waves. New edition. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973.
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WOOLF, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Repr. (1977). London: Granada, 1984.
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WOOLF, Virginia, WOOLF, Leonard, ed. A writer's diary: being the extracts from the diary of Virginia Woolf. 5th impr.. London: Hogarth Press, 1969.
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