Research-oriented and designed for upper-division English majors. Intensive examination of critical approaches, literary theory, or a special topic in literary and cultural studies. Topics vary from semester to semester. Students should consult the department's "Announcement of Classes" for offerings well before the beginning of the semester.

The mystique of Bloomsbury has captured the Anglo-American cultural imagination for over a century. A name that references a small neighborhood in London; a closely knit circle of friends that included some of the signal British writers, artists, cultural critics, and social theorists of the early 20th century; an artistic movement that traversed a broad spectrum of mediums (fiction, memoir, essays, painting, interior design, ceramics, fashion, and book design); and a queer ambiance and unconventional social vision: Bloomsbury produced some enduring contributions and an aura that was greater than the sum of its parts. At the creative center of this world, and of this course, is Virginia Woolf. We will examine several of her major novels and essays and explore their relation to the cultural conversations in which they were participating. We will also look at writing by E.M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield, Lytton Strachey, Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Leonard Woolf, Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes and explore the visual cultures of British Post-Impressionism and the Omega Workshop. Among the arenas we will examine are the social and cultural articulations of intimacy; the cultivation of personality and the aesthetics of impersonality; the translation of aesthetic principles across artistic mediums; the viability of friendship as a model of the social; the relation of the individual to the social organism; and the contradictions between cultural snobbery and social egalitarianism. We will also examine the dynamics of cultural myth making and community building, paying special attention to specific social sites such as the university, the art workshop, the printing press, and the memoir club. Bloomsbury has been subjected to scathing criticism for being elitist, narcissistic, incestuous, and individualistic. It has also been applauded for being artistically and socially progressive. We will evaluate these claims in relation to specific texts and contexts. We will also explore whether there is a unifying Bloomsbury worldview or set of values that traverse the different disciplines in which its members worked. Since this is a research seminar intended to culminate in a 20-page thesis, a significant component of our work this semester will be devoted to research challenges and strategies. Early in the semester, students will divide into groups to pursue specific research topics. There will also be a short critical paper, followed by a thesis proposal paving the way to the thesis.

Book List:

Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One’s Own, Orlando; E.M. Forster, Howard’s End

Requisites

• English 100 is prerequisite to English 190.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills