Event—Adult Education

Crystallizing the Moment: Virginia Woolf’s Writings and Influence

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In this class, we will read and discuss Woolf’s novels Jacob’s Room and To the Lighthouse, as well as her evocative autobiographical sketches in Moments of Being, and the central feminist text A Room of One’s Own.

Virginia Woolf in 1902, photographed by George Charles Beresford. Source: George Charles Beresford, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Class Description

Along with other early twentieth-century novelists such as James Joyce and Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf experimented with and changed the form of the modern novel. With her lyrical prose, she aimed to “crystallize and transfix the moment.”

In this class, we will read and discuss Woolf’s novels Jacob’s Room and To the Lighthouse, as well as her evocative autobiographical sketches in Moments of Being, and the central feminist text A Room of One’s Own. In addition to thinking about the social and aesthetic context in which she writes, we will also consider her continuing influence.

Laura MacKay Hansen has a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from New York University, and has taught at NYU, Brooklyn College (CUNY), North Park University, and Beloit College.

Materials List

Required:

  • Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room. Oxford UP, 2008. ISBN: 978-0199536580
  • Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being. Mariner Books, 1985. ISBN: 978- 0156619189
  • Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own. Mariner Books, 1989. ISBN: 978- 0156787338
  • Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989. ISBN: 978- 0156907392

First Reading:

  • Please read the first 30 pages of “A Sketch of the Past” (pp. 64-95 in Moments of Being) for the first session.

Cost and Registration

This class is full, but you can still register for the waitlist on Learning Stream.

Five sessions, $205 ($184.50 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.

To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.

Register for Waitlist

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