This course offers an opportunity to study all nine novels by Woolf. It is designed as an introduction to her oeuvre and can be taken whether you have previously studied Woolf or not. For beginners, excerpts will suffice. Key issues for critical discussion include Woolf’s rethinking of the theory and the form of the novel (considering such issues as voice, point of view, symbolism), gender and writing, life-writing, memory and history, political questions (such as feminism, socialism and anti-fascism), consciousness and mind, and her intertextual relations to other writers.

The mid-term exam is a commentary paper. Students are expected to contextualize the given passages and analyze significant points of content and style. The final essay (2500 words for undergrads/ 5000 for grads) is expected to show substantial knowledge of at least three novels (unless otherwise arranged).

Reading:

Early ‘Dramatic’ Woolf: The Voyage Out (1915), Night and Day (1919).

Middle ‘Experimental’ Woolf: Jacobs Room (1922), Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), The Waves (1931).

Late ‘Historical’ Woolf: The Years (1937); Between the Acts (posth. 1941).