Description
Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde traces Woolf's art and thought in dialogue with Bloomsbury, Britain's modern heir to the unfinished Enlightenment project of human rights, democratic self-governance, and world peace. For Bloomsbury the 1914 "civil war" exposed barbarity within European civilization-belligerent nationalism, racialized economic imperialism, oppressive class and sex/gender systems-the Versailles Peace fostered totalitarianism and led to a second world war. An avant-garde in the struggle against the violence within, Bloomsbury contributed richly to interwar debates as liberal democracy, socialism, fascism, and communism contended over Europe's future.From her first novel, The Voyage Out, to her last, Between the Acts, Woolf honed her public voice alongside Bloomsbury contemporaries John Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry, Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield and others. An ambitious analysis of Woolf's major writings in light of the historical conditions to which they respond, this volume illuminates the convergence of aesthetics and politics in post-Enlightenment thought and opens a new chapter in Woolf studies.
About the Author
Christine Froula is professor of English, comparative literature, and gender studies at Northwestern University and a past president of the International Virginia Woolf Society. Her extensive publications include Modernism's Body: Sex, Culture, and Joyce.
Reviews
In this brilliant, indeed indispensable, study, Froula (Northwestern Univ.) places Woolf's major works in the context of Bloomsbury as a modernist movement...Essential. Choice Froula pursues her task passionately in a book which is energetic and likeable. -- Jim Stewart Times Literary Supplement Christine Froula's Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde is a timely and valuable contribution to Woolf studies emphasizing Woolf's relation to the political, aesthetic, and feminine milieu of her own era and beyond. -- Vera Neverow Modernism / Modernity Provocative... intensely optimistic... Impressive body of work on Woolf and modernism... Provides a fresh and challenging set of readings. -- Helen Southworth Virginia Woolf Miscellany Froula's book brims with fresh historical and political insights... [Her] book is crucial. -- Julia Keller Chicago Tribune This major new book is a significant and substantial addition to [Froula's] contribution to Woolf studies. -- Janfarie Skinner Virginia Woolf Bulletin Froula's fascinating new book... makes a timely contribution to modernist scholarship. -- Jane Garrity Woolf Studies Annual What a pleasure to read Froula's smart, wide-ranging, and often exquisite book. -- Jessica Berman Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature We can be grateful to Christine Froula for this most stimulating study which significantly broadens the scope of Woolf's work. -- Christine Reynier In-between
Awards
Winner of Oustanding Academic Title 2005.
Book Information
ISBN 9780231134446
Author Christine Froula
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press