Virginia Woolf: Literary Percolation from “Jacob’s Room” to “The Waves”
The aim of this literary exploration is to delight in the literary genius that coruscates through Virginia Woolf’s self-avowed masterpiece, the at once challenging and alluring The Waves. This course is designed for both first-time readers and Woolfian co-scholars alike. We will steep ourselves in a textual journey through Virginia Woolf’s literary universe, replete with full novels, excerpts from Woolf’s diary entries, literary critiques drawn from her “The Common Reader” series, and excerpts from Modernist and Victorian novels and poetry mentioned therein. We will also examine facsimiles of Woolf’s drafts and handwritten margin notes, where applicable.
In essence, we will explore the archaeology of Woolf’s literary output by reveling simultaneously in her literary input—that is, we will read each novel alongside the masterpieces that either wittingly or unwittingly informed her style at the time of its writing. We will also track passages of apprehensions, misgivings, and ecstatic fulfillment from her diaries accompanying the writing and publication of each of the novels of our focus.
The required reading involves one full novel per week (some shorter than others), proceeding chronologically through Woolf’s canon; we will discuss the novelistic experiment of Jacob’s Room, the condensation of psyches in Mrs. Dalloway, the famed middle section of To the Lighthouse, the character and temporal fluidity in Orlando, and the poetic lyricism, philosophy, and structure that contributes to the composite beauty of The Waves.
Required reading (you may purchase any edition of each of the following):
Jacob’s Room
Mrs. Dalloway
To the Lighthouse
Orlando
The Waves
Virginia Woolf: A Writer’s Diary (note that this does not mean her 5 published volumes of diary entries; this work is a condensed version that pertains only to Woolf's diaristic ruminations on her own writing)
Location
TBD - Brooklyn or Manhattan (New York)
Meeting times
This is a 5-week course that meets on the following Tuesdays:
Feb 4 - 7:30-9pm
Feb 11 - 7:30-9pm
Feb 18 - 7:30-9pm
Feb 25 - 7:30-9pm
Mar 3 - 7:30-9pm
*Please e-mail me if you are interested in the course but are not available on Tuesdays; if there is enough interest, we may be able to arrange a second, identical class on a different day of the week.
Price
$250
Led by Sakina B. Fakhri, co-founder of Lazuli Literary Group and co-editor of AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought
How to Join [Registration closed]
Please fill in and submit your contact information below (a very important step, without which we may not be able to get in touch with you!). Then, use the PayPal "Pay Now" button to pay the $250 fee and complete your registration. We look forward to delving into this rigorous (gratifying) Woolfian journey with you!
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