ENGLISH 4470 MAJOR BRITISH FIGURES

VIRGINIA WOOLF: WRITING/LIFE

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
CRN 22473 Spring Term 2011 TR 1:402:55

DR. GREGORY ODEA

Offices: Holt 229D (425-4611)
Guerry 202 (4254166)
Email: gregory-odea@utc.edu

Hours: MWF 99:50 (Holt); 23 (Guerry)

TTH 1011 (Guerry)
and by appointment

"Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top."
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929)

THE COURSE
Catalog Description: A reading course in the works of a major British writer or writers. Writers to be
studied will be specified in the schedule of classes. On demand. Maximum credit 6 hours for the degree.
Virginia Woolf (18821941) writer, feminist, pacifist is among the most important and influential
figures in twentieth-century literature. Woolf practically reinvented the English novel with her profound,
poetic explorations of subjectivity, and she very much lived at the center of English literary life during the
inter-war years, working among an unusually energetic circle of modernist writers, artists, and thinkers.
(At different points in her life, she knew or worked with Henry James, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Sigmund
Freud, Roger Fry, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Vita Sackville-West, and many more).
The seminar will examine the interweaving of these two strands, Woolf's revolutionary writing and her
unusual life, in the context of her times. We will concentrate on Woolf's ideas about writing fiction
(though many other ideas and genres flow through that consideration), and our reading will focus on her
novels, essays, and stories. The following topics will have particular interest in our reading and thinking:

English social history (especially class and gender) in the first half of the twentieth century
The development of an artist's thought and work across a career
Modernism as a hallmark of the twentieth century's break with traditional thought
The particulars of a thoroughly "literary" life and family
Psychology and mental illness
Literary process (we'll read significant selections from Woolf's writer's diary)
The intricacies and mysteries of language

TEXTS

Virginia Woolf - Jacob's Room - Mariner ISBN 978-0156034791

Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156030359
Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156030472
Virginia Woolf - Orlando - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156031516
Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156030410
Virginia Woolf - The Waves - Mariner- ISBN 978-0156031578
Virginia Woolf - Between the Acts - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156034739
Virginia Woolf - A Writer's Diary - Mariner - ISBN 978-0156027915

These required texts are available at the UTC Bookstore and from most online booksellers. Other
materials will be distributed via UTC Online.

English 4470 Virginia Woolf: Writing/Life 2

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADES

Short Essays (2 @ 15%) .....................................

Critical Summary-Reviews (6 @ 5%) ................
Longer Researched Paper ...................................
Preparation & Participation .................................

30%
30%
25%
15%

Grade Scale: A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79; D=60-69; F=below 60

SHORT ESSAYS
Students will have three opportunities to write two required short essays, each about 1800 words (about 6
double-spaced, computer-printed pages). Each essay should address a carefully-focused aspect of one or
two of Woolf's works, including at least one novel, and

pose a clear and specific critical question that you would like to explore;
present a clear and specific response to that question;
offer clear and specific evidence from the text as support for your response.

Suitable subjects include a well-focused theme, analyses of characters or particular scenes or recurring
images, difficulties of plot, narrative devices, structural patterns, etc. I will distribute sample topics at
appropriate times. These essays may form the bases for the longer researched paper. Due dates are listed
in the Schedule of Class Meetings.

CRITICAL SUMMARY-REVIEWS
UTC's Lupton Library gives us access to a wealth of important, peer-reviewed journals in literary studies,
mostly thanks to electronic databases that offer full-text articles. The critical summary-review assignment
will make good use of these resources. Each student is responsible for finding, reading, summarizing and
reviewing one critical article about each novel on our syllabus. You will post your summary-reviews
(with full bibliographic citation) and a link to the full-text article itself in the appropriate forum on our
UTC Online Discussion Board. This way, we'll all have access to a range of critical material as we
discuss each novel, and especially when we approach the longer researched paper. I have posted specific
instructions for this ongoing assignment on UTC Online > Assignments. Please read them carefully.

LONGER RESEARCHED PAPER

Students will write one longer researched paper of about 15 double-spaced, computer-printed pages. This
paper may revise and expand ideas from your short essays, and should trace an idea or theme as it
develops through at least two of Woolf's novels. You should follow the form for short essays (question,
response, evidence), but each section of the longer paper should be more detailed, more sophisticated, and
offer more evidence, both from the primary texts and from at least six secondary critical sources. (If you
and your fellow seminarians do well with your critical summary-reviews, you will have a hefty annotated
bibliography to work from as well as quick access to the articles themselves though you are certainly
not limited to this selection of sources.)
In preparation for this paper you are required to submit a written topic proposal and have a short
consultation with me about your plans for researching and organizing the project. Due dates are listed in
the Schedule of Class Meetings.

English 4470 Virginia Woolf: Writing/Life 3

PREPARATION & PARTICIPATION

You are expected to prepare for, attend, and participate in each of our seminar meetings. Absence is
excused only by serious illness or family emergency. You should inform me as soon as possible regarding
the cause of absence.
This much, at least, I assume; your presence is a necessary but insufficient condition for preparation and
participation. Rather, I expect that you will: (a) prepare for each meeting by carefully and consistently
completing the days assignments, and (b) demonstrate that preparation by thoughtful participation in
seminar discussion. I will take attendance regularly. Three or more absences will lower your participation
grade; six absences will earn you an F in the course.
At the end of class I will also frequently announce "thinking assignments" for our next meeting. These
assignments will ask you to work with our texts in a particular way, or to prepare a short, informal set of
comments for the next class, etc. Your care in preparing these assignments forms a major component of
your preparation and participation grade.

ASSISTANCE
ADA Statement:
If you are a student with a disability (i.e., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing etc.) and think
that you might need special assistance or accommodations in this class or any other class, please call the
Office for Students with Disabilities at 425-4006, go to the office102 Frist Hall, or see
http://www.utc.edu/OSD/.
Counseling and Career Planning:
If you find that personal problems, career indecision, study and time management difficulties, etc. are
adversely impacting your successful progress at UTC, please contact the Counseling and Career Planning
Center at 425-4438 or http://www.utc.edu/Administration/CounselingAndCareerPlanning/.
To enhance student services, the University will use your UTC email address (firstnamelastname@mocs.utc.edu) for communications. (See http://onenet.utc.edu for your exact address.) Please
check your UTC email on a regular basis. If you have problems with accessing your email account,
contact the Help Desk at 423/425-4000.

English 4470 Virginia Woolf: Writing/Life 4

SCHEDULE OF CLASS MEETINGS

(subject to revision as we proceed)
JAN 18 T:

Course Intro: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Victoria, Edward, Georges: The Great War(s) and Modern(ist) Memory
Leslie, Leonard, Hogarth: Writing/Life

JAN 20 R:

J. J. Wilson, "Biographical Essay" (UTC Online)

Early Experimental Narratives I:
"The Mark on the Wall" (1917) (UTC Online)

JAN 25 T:

Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Modernism

Early Experimental Narratives II:
"Kew Gardens" (1919) (UTC Online)
"An Unwritten Novel" (1920) (UTC Online)

JAN 27 R:

Jacob's Room (1922)

A Writer's Diary: 26 Jan 1920 - 29 Oct 1922

FEB 01 T:

Jacob's Room (1922)

Critical Summary-Review (JR) Due

FEB 03 R:

Jacob's Room (1922)

FEB 08 T:

"Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown" (1923) (UTC Online)

"Modern Fiction" (1919; 1925) (UTC Online)
"On Not Knowing Greek" (1925) (UTC Online)
"Jane Austen" (1925) (UTC Online)

FEB 10 R:

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

FEB 15 T:

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

A Writer's Diary: 13 June 1923 - 7 Dec 1925
Critical Summary-Review (MD) Due

FEB 17 R:

Mrs Dalloway (1925)

FEB 22 T:

"How Should One Read a Book?" (1926) (UTC Online)

To the Lighthouse (1927)

FEB 24 R:

To the Lighthouse (1927)

Short Essay #1 Due

MAR 01 T:

To the Lighthouse (1927) (esp. "Time Passes")

Critical Summary-Review (TTL) Due

MAR 03 R:

To the Lighthouse (1927)

A Writer's Diary: 14 June 1925 - 16 May 1927

English 4470 Virginia Woolf: Writing/Life 5

MAR 08 T:

Orlando: A Biography (1928)

MAR 10 R:

Orlando: A Biography (1928)

Critical Summary-Review (Orlando) Due

SPRING BREAK
MAR 22 T:

Orlando: A Biography (1928)

A Writer's Diary: 14 March 1927; 5 Oct 1927 - 18 Dec 1928

MAR 24 R:

A Room of One's Own (1929)

A Writer's Diary: 28 March - 19 Aug 1929; 23 Oct 1929
"Professions for Women (1931) (UTC Online)
Short Essay #2 Due

MAR 29 T:

A Room of One's Own (1929)

MAR 31 R:

The Waves (1931)

A Writer's Diary: 8 June 1927; 12 Aug 1928; 7 Nov 1928 - 11 Oct 1929

APR 05 T:

The Waves (1931)

APR 07 R:

The Waves (1931)

A Writer's Diary: 2 Nov 1929 - 16 Nov 1931
Critical Summary-Review (Waves) Due

APR 12 T:

The Waves (1931)

Research Paper Proposal Due

APR 14 R:

"Street Haunting" (1927) (UTC Online)

"The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection" (1929) (UTC Online)
"A Letter to a Young Poet" (1932) (UTC Online)
"Lappin and Lapinova" (1939) (UTC Online)
"The Legacy" (1940) (UTC Online)
Short Essay #3 Due

APR 19 T:

Between the Acts (1941)

APR 21 R:

Between the Acts (1941)

Critical Summary-Review (BTA) Due

APR 26 T:

Between the Acts (1941)

A Writer's Diary: 26 April 1938 - 8 March 1941

APR 28 R:

"The Death of the Moth" (UTC Online)

Final Thoughts

MAY 03 T:

Longer Researched Paper Due