Brian Finney Spring 2015

Office: MHB-506
Phone: 562-985-4247
Office Hours: Tu/Th 4-5 p.m.
Email: bhfinney@bhfinney.com
Web site: www.csulb.edu/~bhfinney

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ENGLISH 469V: MAJOR ENGLISH WRITERS: VIRGINIA WOOLF
Schedule:  Tu, Th  2:00pm - 3:45 pm    
Location: LA2-202
 

Prerequisites


At least senior standing, and 12 units of upper-division English.

Purpose

This upper division seminar introduces students to the work of Virginia Woolf, one of the eading modernist writers of her generation. The seminar will concentrate on her development as a novelist and feminst, while using her letters, diaries and essays to provide background information on her life and views. In focusing on the work of this major author, the seminar will introduce sudents to the wealth of scholarship surrounding Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group.

Expected Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course you should be able to:

  • view Woolf and her work in their historical context
  • understand Woolf’s contribution to modernism and Irish literature
  • ask critically valid questions about Woolf's’s artistic decisions
  • read Woolf’s work with critical insight
  • know how to conduct research into the topics of the course
  • write analytically about Woolf's’s fiction with an understanding of its intellectual, artistic and historical significance

Required Texts (available in bookstore)

    Woolf, Virginia. A Haunted House and Other Short Stories. New York: Mariner, 2002. Print.

    ---. A Room of One’s Own. Introd. and notes by Susan Gubar. New York: Mariner, 2005. Print.

    ---. Between the Acts. New York: Mariner, 2008. Print.

    ---. Jacob’s Room. Introd. and notes by Vara Neverow. New York: Mariner, 2008. Print.

    ---. Moments of Being. New York, Mariner, 1985. Print.

    ---. Mrs. Dalloway. Introd. and notes by Bonnie Kime Scott. New York: Mariner, 2005. Print.

    ---. Orlando. Introd. and notes by Maria DiBattista. New York: Harvest, 2006. Print.

    ---. The Waves. Introd. and notes by Molly Hite. New York: Harvest, 2006. Print.

    ---. To the Lighthouse. Introd. and notes by Mark Hussey. New York: Harvest, 2005. Print.

Optional Text

Woolf, Virginia. Three Guineas. Introd. and notes by Jane Marcus. New York: Harcourt, 2006. Print.

Course Requirements

ATTENDANCE. You are expected to attend class regularly. More than three unexcused absences will lower your course grade by a grade point. More than six unexcused absences could result in a course grade of F. See Makeup and Attendance Policy below.

READING. You are all expected to have read the texts listed in the syllabus before the first class in which it is scheduled to be discussed.

BEACHBOARD. This syllabus will be available on Beachboard. Grades for your oral paper (but not for reaction papers) will be posted on Beachboard as they are awarded.

REACTION PAPERS. You are required to offer a one-page printed reaction paper (MLA style, but using 1.5 spacing) to each text marked with an asterisk on the first day it is being studied. You may be asked to read out - or preferably talk about - your response to each work to your fellow students and me during the first class that considers a particular text. You should leave your printed reaction paper with me at the end of that class. Reactions will be graded acceptable (a check), unacceptable (a cross), or exceptional (two checks). Late reaction papers will be accepted but recorded as late and treated as if they had had a grade point deducted.

ORAL PRESENTATION AND PAPER. You will be required to undertake one oral presentation chosen from those listed in the syllabus. The sources listed in parentheses after the oral topic on the syllabus are not exhaustive and should be supplemented by your research.Your oral presentation to the class should last between 30-40 minutes including questions and answers. You will be graded for this assignment solely on the basis of a 4-6 page paper printed in MLA style that you will give me one week after the class in which you make the presentation. Your paper needs to take the form of an argument. Consult me before deciding on the subject of the paper that should concern a major aspect of the topic of the oral presentation. You should normally cite at least three reputable sources (not from the Internet). Late papers will lose a grade point for each week they are late. See "Writing Your Oral Paper" on Beachboard.

TERM RESEARCH PAPER. There will be a term paper on a subject chosen by you and submitted to me for approval in advance not later than 28 March. The topic should not involve the same text you focused on for your oral presentation. As a preliminary you will produce a typed two-page abstract for distribution among your fellow students at the time you make your oral presentation of your research and argument during the final week and a half of the semester. The aim of these presentations is to obtain from the group constructive criticism of your proposed term paper and suggestions for improving it, as well as learning from other students' experiences. Your research paper must incorporate at least four secondary sources (from books, articles or not more than one reliable site on the Internet) and be 10-12 pages long including a list of works cited, using MLA style throughout.

Grade Point Computation

See the University Catalog: Regulations – Grades and Grading Procedures for definitions of grades A-F.

  • Attendance, preparation and participation: 10%
  • Reaction papers: 25%
  • Oral presentation and paper or equivalent: 30%
  • Outline for final research paper 5%
  • Term research paper: 30%

Syllabus

  • Tu 20 Jan Introduction. Modernism

  • Th 22 Jan Biography (1). Woolf’s early biography. Woolf’s contributions to modernism.

  • Tu 27 Jan Moments of Being: “Old Bloomsbury”. The Bloomsbury Group.
  • ORAL: Members of the Bloomsbury Group and their shared outlook (Quentin Bell, Bloomsbury, 1968; Leon Edel, Bloomsbury: A House of Lions, 1988; Andrew McNeillie, “Bloomsbury,” Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, 2000; Frances Spalding, Bloomsbury Group, 2010).
  • Th 29 Jan Moments of Being: “Reminiscences”.
  • ORAL: Vanessa Bell, her life and place in Virginia’s life and work (cf. Frances Spalding. Vanessa Bell, 1983; Jane Dunn, A Very Close Conspiracy, 1991).
  • Tu 3 Feb Moments of Being: “A Sketch of the Past”* and “22 Hyde Park Gate”.
  • ORAL: Sir Leslie Stephen: his life and effect on Virginia Woolf (cf. Noel Annan, Leslie Stephen: The Godless Victorian, 1986; Alan Bell, ed., Sir Leslie Stephen’s Mausoleum Book, 1977).
  • Th 5 Feb A Room of One’s Own.*
  • ORAL: A history of the Women’s Movement in Britain to 1939 (Melanie Phillips, The Ascent of Woman, 2004).
  • ORAL: Woolf, the “Angel in the House” and androgyny (cf. “Professions for Women” and “Women and Fiction;” cf. Mary Jacobus, “The Difference of View” in Reading Woman, 1987).
  • Tu 10 Feb Three Guineas.
  • ORAL: Woolf on war, patriarchy and feminism (cf. Letters, Diaries, Essays including “The Leaning Tower” in A Woman’s Essays, ed Rachel Bowlby, 1992).).
  • Th 12 Feb A Haunted House: “Kew Gardens,” “The Mark on the Wall,” “An Unwritten Novel.”*
  • ORAL: Woolf’s experimental short fiction (cf. Dean R. Baldwin, Virginia Woolf: A Study of the Short Fiction, 1989; Christine Reynier, Virginia Woolf’s Ethics of the Short Story, 2009).
  • Tu 17 Feb Jacob’s Room.*
  • ORAL: Roger Fry and post-impressionism (Fry, Vision and Design, 1920; Sue Roe, “The Impact of Post-Impressionism,” Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, 2000).
  • Th 19 Feb Jacob’s Room.
  • ORAL: G. E. Moore’s Principia Ethica and its impact on the Bloomsbury Group (T Baldwin, G.E.Moore, 1990; P Levy, Moore: G.E.Moore and the Cambridge Apostles, 1979; L Woolf, Sowing, chap.2).
  • Tu 24 Feb Mrs Dalloway.*
  • ORAL: Biography (2): Virginia Woolf and insanity (cf. Elaine Showalter, The Female Malady, 1987; Elizabeth Abel, Virginia Woolf and the Fictions of Psychoanalysis, 1989; Nicole Ward Jouve, “Virginia Woolf and Psychoanalysis,” Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf; Thomas C. Carmagnom The Flight of the Mind, 1996).
  • Th 26 Feb Mrs Dalloway.
  • ORAL: The making and reception of The Hours (2002) dir. Stephen Daldry (Show extract from film; cf. Camera Obscura 21.61 (Jan 2006): 104-45).
  • Tu 3 Mar Mrs Dalloway.
  • ORAL: The fragmentation of the subject and Mrs Dalloway (Makiko Minow-Pinkney, Virginia Woolf and the Problem of the Subject, 1987; cf. Donald E Hall, Subjectivity, 2004).
  • Th 5 Mar Bloomsbury painters and writers.
  • ORAL: Duncan Grant, his life, work, and circle (Frances Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography, 1988; Simon Watney, The Art of Duncan Grant, 2000; Richard Shone & Richard Mophet, The Art of Bloomsbury, 2001).
  • ORAL: Leonard Woolf’s life and relationship with Virginia Woolf (cf. George Spater, A Marriage of True Minds, 1977; selections from Leonard Woolf’s Autobiography, vols 3-5).
  • Tu 10 Mar To the Lighthouse.*
  • ORAL: Genesis of To the Lighthouse (Diary; Letters; To the Lighthouse: The Original Holograph Draft, ed. Susan Dick, 1982).
  • Th 12 Mar To the Lighthouse.
  • ORAL: Virginia Woolf’s non-fiction. (Cf. Collected Essays; Beth Rosenberg and J Dubino, eds, Virginia Woolf and the Essay, 1997; Hermione Lee, “Woolf’s Essays,” Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, 2000).
  • Tu 17 Mar To the Lighthouse.
  • ORAL: Feminist interpretations of To the Lighthouse (Elizabeth Abel, Virginia Woolf and the Fictions of Psychoanalysis, 1989; Jane Goldman, ed. Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, The Waves, 1998).
  • Th 19 Mar How to research, structure and write an English research paper.
  • Tu 24 Mar Orlando.*
  • ORAL: Vita Sackville-West, Knole, the Sackvilles and Orlando (cf. Nigel Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage 1995; Violet Trefusis, Don’t Look Round; Suzanne Raitt, Vita and Virginia, 1993).
  • Th 26 Mar Orlando.
  • ORAL: Lytton Strachey’s “new biography” and Virginia Woolf’s ideas on biography in “The New Biography” and “The Art of Biography” (cf. refs in Michael Holroyd, Lytton Strachey: The New Biography, 1995).
  • 30 Mar-5 Apr SPRING RECESS
  • Tu 7 Apr Orlando.
  • ORAL: The Bildungsroman and Orlando as the development of the artist and of English literature (Beth A Boehm in JNT 22:3 (1992): 191-204).
  • Th 9Apr Orlando and the film of the book.
  • ORAL: Woolf’s metafictional use of parodic styles in Orlando.
  • Tu 14 Apr The Waves.*
  • ORAL: The genesis of her “playpoem,” The Waves (Diaries, Letters and her essay, “The Narrow Bridge of Art”).
  • Th 16 Apr The Waves.
  • ORAL: Various feminist readings of Virginia Woolf’s writings (Jane Marcus, ed. Virginia Woolf: A Feminist Slant, 1985; Rachel Bowlby ed. A Woman’s Essays, 1992; Laura Marcus, “Woolf’s Feminism and Feminism’s Woolf,” Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf, 2000).
  • Tu 21 Ap The Waves.
  • ORAL: Analysis of Bernard’s final soliloquy (Eric Warner, Virginia Woolf, The Waves, 1995; Kevin A Boon, An Interpretive Reading of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, 1998; Jane Goldman, Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse/The Waves, 1999).
  • Th 23 Apr Between the Acts.*
  • ORAL: The structure and significance of the pageant in the novel (Andrew John Miller, “Our Representative, Our Spokesman” Studies in the Novel 33.1 (June 30 2001): 34-50).
  • Tu 28 Apr Between the Acts.
  • ORAL: Woolf’s diary and / or letter writing (Sue Roe, ed. Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf. 109-26; Linda Anderson, ed, Women and Autobiography in the Twentieth Century, 1997, pp. 42-75; Domna C Stanton, ed, The Female Autograph, 1984, pp. 168-79).
  • Th 30 Apr Presentations of your outline term papers.
  • Tu 5 May Presentations of your outline term papers or individual consultations in my office.
  • Th 7 May Individual consultations in my office (no class).
  • Th 14 May Submit final paper in my mailbox in MHB-413 by 12:30 pm.

Useful Web Pages

Books Held in Reserve Library

(Go to: eReserves Web Address: http://coast.library.csulb.edu/screens/reserves.html) 7-day loan. Student password: astra)

Beja, Morris, ed. Critical Essays on Virginia Woolf (PR6045.072 Z544 1985).

Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf: A Biography (PR6045.072 Z545 1976).

Briggs, Julia. Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life (PR6045.072 Z54359 2005)

Bloom, Harold, ed. Virginia Woolf (PR6045.072 Z8918 1986).

---. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (PR6045.072 T6867 1988).

Goldman, Jane. The Cambridge Introduction to Virginia Woolf (PR6045.O72 Z647 2006).

Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf (biography). (PR6045.O72 Z774 1999).

Roe, Sue, and Susan Sellers, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Virginia Woolf (PR6045.072 Z5655 2000).

Woolf, Virginia. Collected Essays. 3 vols (PR6045.072 A16 1966-67).

---. Diary of Virginia Woolf. 3 vols (PR6045.072 Z494 1977).

---. Letters of Virginia Woolf. 3 vols (PR6045.072 Z525 1975).

Plagiarism

If you use the ideas or words of another writer as if they were your own without giving credit to the other writer you are guilty of plagiarism. Please consult the University Catalog (“Cheating and Plagiarism”) for details of the University’s policy regarding plagiarism. If you are found to have plagiarized another writer’s words you will receive an F for the paper the first time and an F for the course on a repeat occasion.

Campus Technology Help Desk

The CSULB Technology Help Desk in the Horn Center Lobby is available for students. The Help Desk can assist you on a wide range of computer issues including: Operating Systems, CSULB Email Accounts, My CSULB, Beachboard, Remote Connection to CSULB, Microsoft Desktop Applications, Anti-Virus, Internet and Web related topics,. Contact the Help Desk by phone at 562-985-4959, email to helpdesk@csulb.edu or visit them on the web at helpdesk.csulb.edu.

Withdrawal Policy

Students who choose not to complete this course should withdraw officially as soon as possible and inform me. Withdrawals during the first two weeks do not appear on official records. Withdrawals between the third and twelfth weeks must be for “serious and compelling reasons” and require signed approval by me and the department chair. Withdrawals during the final three weeks of instruction are generally permitted only for accident or serious illness. They require signatures from me, the chair, and the Dean of the College, who may require withdrawal from all classes in which the student is enrolled.

Makeup and Attendance Policy

For a definition of “excused absences” see the University Catalog: Regulations – Class Attendance. Excused absences require you to inform me a week in advance of your absence. More than three unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your course grade by a grade point or more depending on the number of such absences. Students who miss exams or fail to meet deadlines for graded papers for what I consider a compelling reason (such as a religious holiday or jury duty) may make up that part of the grade. It is your responsibility to arrange with me an alternative if you miss the deadline for an assignment. If you submit an assignment late without a documented excuse a penalty for lateness will be imposed. A student who misses the final exam or fails to submit a final paper in lieu of a final exam without a documented excuse will probably receive an F or an Incomplete, depending on the circumstances