LLWRC 907 - Literary Classics: The Brilliant and Influential Writing of Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927) are not only two of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, they're some of the greatest, liveliest, and most thought-provoking reading experiences you'll ever have. The novels explore the effects of a rapidly changing world, new ways of thinking about identity and consciousness, war, trauma, and mental illness, and family, friendship, love, religion, art, empathy, and just about everything else. They don't just discuss the modern world, though, they also participate in its development, offering vital and influential experiments in a new way of writing that captures how we actually experience consciousness, time, and relationships. Woolf's writing is absolutely gorgeous; her prose sings, and in expressing her characters' consciousnesses so beautifully and fully, it broadens and enriches your own. We'll also read Woolf's brilliant and influential A Room of One's Own (1929), a pioneering work of feminism and one of the great examples of the art of the essay.