English 24

Other Readings and Media

T.B.A.

Description

In addition to the novels for which she is most famous, Virginia Woolf produced a voluminous body of short prose, with more than 500 essays and reviews on a dazzling array of topics, including, but far from limited to, peace and war, consciousness and selfhood, modernity and urban experience, national and class identity, Shakespeare, and women writers. In this class, we will take the opportunity to read slowly and with great attention to stylistic and rhetorical detail, some of Woolf's most brilliant and influential essays, in order to understand more not only about the author's own views and experiences, but also how she crafted her luminous and compelling prose. Assigned work will include in-class presentations of selected passages and short written responses to the readings, and will culminate with an attempt at a short essay of your own, with revision guided by a peer-group writing workshop.