Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist - Paperback

by Clara Jones (Author)

Rescues the particularities of Virginia Woolf's political and social participation, tracing her career as an activist across forty-five years
Clara Jones re-reads Woolf's fiction and non-fiction in light of her examination of the details of Woolf's involvement with Morley College, the People's Suffrage Federation, the Women's Co-operative Guild and the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Drawing on extensive archival research into these organisations, Jones also positions Woolf's activism with regard to the institutional contexts in which she worked. Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist demonstrates the degree to which Woolf was sensitive to the internal politics and conflicts of the bodies she was associated with and the ways in which she interrogated her ambivalent attitudes towards her activism throughout her literary career.
Focusing on texts that represent the range of Woolf's literary output, this book includes essays, unpublished sketches, Woolf's social realist 1919 novel Night and Day, and her final, visionary novel Between the Acts. This approach to Woolf's writing takes an integrated view, incorporating her juvenilia and foregrounding Woolf's critically neglected early novels. Rather than offering readings of Woolf's well-known 'political' works, Jones instead uncovers the unexpected ways in which Woolf's activism made its way into unlikely texts.
Key Features
Includes two new transcriptions of material by Woolf: the 'Report on Teaching at Morley College' ('Morley Sketch') and the 'Cook Sketch'
Provides insights into the histories of neglected institutions through accounts of Woolf's activism
Explores a range of texts, reading across genres with an alertness to class and gender politics in each case

Front Jacket

*AUTHOR APPROVED* 'This is the book we have been waiting for on Virginia Woolf and politics. Clara Jones provides fresh, often startling, archival evidence of Woolf's significant involvement with a range of organisations such as the People's Suffrage Federation and the Women's Co-operative Guild. This field-shaping monograph will reconfigure our understanding of Woolf's activism and its relationship to her writing.' Anna Snaith, King's College London Rescues the particularities of Virginia Woolf's political and social participation, tracing her career as an activist across forty-five years Clara Jones re-reads Woolf's fiction and non-fiction in light of her examination of the details of Woolf's involvement with Morley College, the People's Suffrage Federation, the Women's Co-operative Guild and the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Drawing on extensive archival research into these organisations, Jones also positions Woolf's activism with regard to the institutional contexts in which she worked. Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist demonstrates the degree to which Woolf was sensitive to the internal politics and conflicts of the bodies she was associated with and the ways in which she interrogated her ambivalent attitudes towards her activism throughout her literary career. Focusing on texts that represent the range of Woolf's literary output, this book includes essays, unpublished sketches, Woolf's social realist 1919 novel Night and Day, and her final, visionary novel Between the Acts. This approach to Woolf's writing takes an integrated view, incorporating her juvenilia and foregrounding Woolf's critically neglected early novels. Rather than offering readings of Woolf's well-known 'political' works, Jones instead uncovers the unexpected ways in which Woolf's activism made its way into unlikely texts. Key Features - Includes two new transcriptions of material by Woolf: the 'Report on Teaching at Morley College' ('Morley Sketch') and the 'Cook Sketch' - Provides insights into the histories of neglected institutions through accounts of Woolf's activism - Explores a range of texts, reading across genres with an alertness to class and gender politics in each case Clara Jones is a Lecturer in Modern Literature at King's College London where she teaches courses on modernism and life writing. She is the author of a number of articles on Woolf including 'Virginia Woolf's 1931 "Cook Sketch"' in Woolf Studies Annual 2014. Cover image: Virginia Woolf by Lady Ottoline Morrell (c) National Portrait Gallery, London Cover design: Paul Smith [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0192-0 Barcode

Author Biography

Clara Jones is Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature at King's College London. She is the author of Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist (2016) and is currently at work on a new book on the politics of interwar women writers and activists, including Rosamond Lehmann, Ellen Wilkinson, Elizbeth Bowen, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Amabel Williams-Ellis.