Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway: Reading Group [5-weeks, $100 Suggested]

Instructor: Hollis | Sundays September 12-October 10 | 8:30-10:00 PM ET

Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, set in the aftermath of the 1918 flu pandemic, is marked by its innovation and difficulty. The novel uses flashbacks, stream of consciousness, and multi-modal narration to trace the parallel paths of Clarrisa Dalloway, the novel’s titular character, and Septimus Smith, a former soldier affected by PTSD, as they walk about London. We will explore this novel through the lens of Disability Studies to help us understand how in the aftermath of illness and trauma, Clarissa and Septimus try to make sense of and struggle to participate in a world that seems suddenly strange to them. Along with reading the novel, there will be supplemental readings, including some short essays by Woolf as well as some short excerpts from scholarly articles about the novel and Disability Studies. Because this novel is widely regarded as a quintessential modernist text by an important feminist author, it is a perfect work to read together to get our bearings on the context and content and learn more about what literature has to say about our current experience of the world.

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