Virginia Woolf (Authors in Context)

by Whitworth, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780192802347
• ISBN10: 0192802348
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

During Virginia Woolf's lifetime Britain's position in the world changed, and so did the outlook of its people. The Boer War and the First World War forced politicians and citizens alike to ask how far the power of the state extended into the lives of individuals; the rise of fascism providedone menacing answer. Woolf's experiments in fiction, and her unique position in the publishing world, allowed her to address such intersections of the public and the private. Michael Whitworth shows how ideas and images from contemporary novelists, philosophers, theorists, and scientists fuelledher writing, and how critics, film-makers, and novelists have reinterpreted her work for later generations. The book includes a chronology of Virginia Woolf's life and times, suggestions for further reading, websites, illustrations, and a comprehensive index.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
A Chronology of Virginia Woolf	xi
Abbreviations	xviii
The Life of Virginia Woolf	1	(29)
The Fabric of Society: Nation and Identity	30	(44)
Industry, Empire, and Party Politics	31	(5)
Legislation for a New Nation	36	(7)
London	43	(2)
Houses, Households, and Families	45	(5)
The Impact of the First World War	50	(2)
Social Classifications	52	(22)
The Literary Scene	74	(35)
Literature in the Marketplace	76	(9)
Canon and Tradition	85	(2)
Literary Journalism	87	(2)
Censorship	89	(3)
Mode, Genre, and Form	92	(17)
Philosophical Questions	109	(26)
Representation and Aesthetics: To the Lighthouse	110	(5)
Perception and Reality	115	(5)
Clock Time and Psychological Time: Mrs Dalloway	120	(4)
Bergson and Multiple Selves: Mrs Dalloway and The Waves	124	(5)
Alternatives to Plot: To the Lighthouse and The Waves	129	(6)
Society, Individuals, and Choices	135	(33)
Authoritarianism and Individualism: Mrs Dalloway	135	(14)
Career Narratives: Night and Day	149	(8)
Militarism, Discipline, and Education: The Waves	157	(11)
Scientific and Medical Contexts	168	(24)
Mental Health: Mrs Dalloway	169	(7)
Vitality and Women's Writing: A Room of One's Own	176	(2)
The Atom and Woolf's Idea of Fiction	178	(2)
Waves in The Waves	180	(2)
Astronomy and Human Isolation: From Night and Day to The Waves	182	(4)
Selves as Planets: The Waves	186	(2)
Telecommunications as Reality and as Metaphor	188	(4)
Recontextualizing and Reconstructing Woolf	192	(35)
Film and Stage Adaptations	195	(22)
Michael Cunningham's The Hours (1998) and Robin Lippincott's Mr Dalloway (1999)	217	(10)
Notes	227	(25)
Further Reading	252	(5)
Websites	257	(1)
Film and Television Adaptations of Woolf's Novels	258	(1)
Index	259