Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941 Upper class and accomplished family

1. Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941 • Upper class and accomplished family • Highly literate upbringing, surrounded by prominent victorian authors and artists (relatives moved in the Pre-Raphaelite circle; father was a famous editor) • Formal and informal education • Lifelong bouts of depression perhaps stemming from sexual abuse by step-brothers. • After the death of her parents, she and her sister bought a house in Bloomsbury which quickly became the center of the Bloomsbury Salon. • 1907, sister married Clive bell, a prominent critic of modern art • 1912, V married Leonard Woolf, the two started a long writing/publishing relationship (started Hogarth Press in 1917). • Started writing critical journalism in 1900 • First Novel, The Voyage Out, 1915.

2. Mrs Dalloway, 1925 • To the Lighthouse, 1927 • Orlando, 1928 • The Waves, 1931, Etc. • With Joyce, one of the main innovators of Stream-of-Consciousness • Attempted to form a singularly Feminine Aesthetic • One of the main, if not the main, female modernist • Often criticized for classicism

3. Woolf: “Modern Fiction” Not only a break with the past, but a break with the contemporaries of established fiction (Wells, Galsworthy, Bennett).

4. Woolf: “Modern Fiction” Not only a break with the past, but a break with the contemporaries of established fiction (Wells, Galsworthy, Bennett).

5. Woolf: “Modern Fiction” • Not only a break with the past, but a break with the contemporaries of established fiction (Wells, Galsworthy, Bennett). • Definition of Modern fiction as: • against these popular authors “not learn from what they do, but what they can’t do” (and therefore what we can) • against these authors’ “materialism.” What does this mean? • For Woolf, Bennett suffers because his fiction is: • About The Body, not the Spirit • Craft, not Art. • Formulaic, not representational • And Wells’ fiction: • Advocates Class (education of the masses) over aristocracy / privilege • In general, good fiction must: • be Representational of life, not formulaic • Have Psychological depth, even if presenting dark aspects of life • Woolf strives to find a form that allows for this

7. “Professions for Women” Illustrates Woolf’s growing concern with the plight of women and women writers: Her Advice?

8. “Professions for Women” • Illustrates Woolf’s growing concern with the plight of women and women writers: • Her Advice? • A Woman Writer must “kill” the role and expectations of woman as purely domestic • A Woman Writer must be able to write “her own body” outside of moral restrictions of gender • Consider this in contrast / comparison to Joyce and his reputation and subject matter

9. Katherine Mansfield, 1888 – 1923 • Born in New Zealand to wealthy parents • Educated in Queen’s College, England and traveled Europe, 1903-1906 • Moved to England at 19 and became involved in the London literary scene (and bohemian scene, having numerous relationships with both men and women) • 1910, was publishing in the New Age little magazine relationship with Beatrice Hastings) • First Book, 1911, In a German Pension, written after a stay in Germany (to avoid scandal over an unplanned pregnancy which eventually miscarried) • 1911, met John Middleton Murry, editor of Rhythm little magazine. They would eventually marry in 1918 • Contracted Tuberculosis in 1917. • With Murry, became acquainted with the major modernists: D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf esp, published in many little magazines of the period • Died of tuberculosis in 1923 • Master of the Short Story, influenced by Russian authors esp Chekov • Important editor, involvement with little magazines • Like Woolf, points to the important of many women modernists behind the scenes