Barbara Lounsberry
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062952
- eISBN:
- 9780813051833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062952.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Woolf expands her 1926 diary. In February, she begins “a new convention”: starting each entry on a new page, her “habit in writing serious literature.” In May, she reaches outward toward public ...
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Woolf expands her 1926 diary. In February, she begins “a new convention”: starting each entry on a new page, her “habit in writing serious literature.” In May, she reaches outward toward public history with a diary of the General Strike. She then turns inward for eleven titled “State of Mind” probes: probes of the boundaries between sense, thought, and art. In October, she imagines “an endeavour at something mystic, spiritual; the thing that exists when we aren’t there.” The diaries she reads propel her toward this place. Across the year Woolf returns often to Beatrice Webb’s memoir My Apprenticeship, woven around diary extracts. These extracts supply notions for To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Flush, and Three Guineas—and especially for A Room of One’s Own and “Professions for Women.” In September, Woolf reviews the Journals of Thomas Cobden-Sanderson. His questing journals encourage Woolf’s search for “the mystical side of this solitude,” she writes, or what Webb calls the great Unknown. Soon after, Woolf reviews the Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter, from his Autobiography and Journals. Haydon’s Journals offer her a memorable moment for To the Lighthouse and matter for A Room of One’s Own—and more.Less
Woolf expands her 1926 diary. In February, she begins “a new convention”: starting each entry on a new page, her “habit in writing serious literature.” In May, she reaches outward toward public history with a diary of the General Strike. She then turns inward for eleven titled “State of Mind” probes: probes of the boundaries between sense, thought, and art. In October, she imagines “an endeavour at something mystic, spiritual; the thing that exists when we aren’t there.” The diaries she reads propel her toward this place. Across the year Woolf returns often to Beatrice Webb’s memoir My Apprenticeship, woven around diary extracts. These extracts supply notions for To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Flush, and Three Guineas—and especially for A Room of One’s Own and “Professions for Women.” In September, Woolf reviews the Journals of Thomas Cobden-Sanderson. His questing journals encourage Woolf’s search for “the mystical side of this solitude,” she writes, or what Webb calls the great Unknown. Soon after, Woolf reviews the Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter, from his Autobiography and Journals. Haydon’s Journals offer her a memorable moment for To the Lighthouse and matter for A Room of One’s Own—and more.
Kelle Sills Mullineaux
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780990895800
- eISBN:
- 9781781382400
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780990895800.003.0028
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In regard to Virginia Woolf’s merit as a composition theorist and her conception of imagined audiences, this essay offers three arguments. First, Woolf foresaw many of the concerns about imagined ...
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In regard to Virginia Woolf’s merit as a composition theorist and her conception of imagined audiences, this essay offers three arguments. First, Woolf foresaw many of the concerns about imagined audience that would eventually interest modern composition theorists. Second, Woolf’s conceptualization of the writer’s relationship to audience is revealed through study of both her fiction and nonfiction. Finally, the writer/audience relationship that Woolf illuminates is helpful for teaching students and complements the goals of composition as a field. This essay uses the following Woolf texts to engage these arguments: Between the Acts, Jacob’s Room, “Professions for Women,” A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, “Women and Fiction,” and A Writer’s Diary.Less
In regard to Virginia Woolf’s merit as a composition theorist and her conception of imagined audiences, this essay offers three arguments. First, Woolf foresaw many of the concerns about imagined audience that would eventually interest modern composition theorists. Second, Woolf’s conceptualization of the writer’s relationship to audience is revealed through study of both her fiction and nonfiction. Finally, the writer/audience relationship that Woolf illuminates is helpful for teaching students and complements the goals of composition as a field. This essay uses the following Woolf texts to engage these arguments: Between the Acts, Jacob’s Room, “Professions for Women,” A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, “Women and Fiction,” and A Writer’s Diary.
