Virginia Woolf's Late Cultural Criticism: The Genesis of 'The Years', 'Three Guineas' and 'Between the Acts'

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After the Modernist literary experiments of her earlier work, Virginia Woolf became increasingly concerned with overt social and political commentary in her later writings, which are preoccupied with dissecting the links between patriarchy, patriotism, imperialism and war. This book unravels the complex textual histories of The Years (1937), Three Guineas (1938) and Between the Acts (1941) to expose the genesis and evolution of Virginia Woolfs late cultural criticism. Fusing a feminist-historicist approach with the practices and principles of genetic criticism, this innovative study scrutinizes a range of holograph, typescript and proof documents within their historical context to uncover the writing and thinking processes that produced Woolfs cultural analysis during 1931-1941. By demonstrating that Woolfs late cultural criticism developed through her literary experimentalism as well as in response to contemporary social, political and economic upheavals, this book offers a fresh perspective on her emergence as a cultural commentator in her final decade and paves the way for further genetic enquiries in the field.

Reviews

"Building on a conversation heralded by the late Virginia Woolf scholar Julia Briggs, among others, Wood (Univ. of Portsmouth, UK) delivers a superlative, innovative examination of Woolf's processes of writing and thinking. Focusing on Woolf's later work--the novels The Years (1937) and Between the Acts (1941) and her major pacifist polemic, Three Guineas (1938), originally attached as a novel-essay to The Years--Wood deploys the practices and principles of genetic criticism, a French school of textual studies, and avant-textes (or pre-texts), a branch of manuscript studies reliant on historical context. The significance of Wood's volume rests on her recognition of Woolf as a social and cultural critic. In the first chapter, "Introducing Late Woolf," the author writes that she "crucially reads Woolf's late cultural criticism as an extension of, rather than a departure from, the innovative feminist politics and aesthetic experimentation of her earlier writing." This is a candid, refreshing investigation into Woolf's political theories, processes, and ideas in conversation with the dominant male narratives responding to the economic, social, and political upheavals of their own times. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty." --J. Mills, John Jay College-CUNY, CHOICE

"Alice Wood's Virginia Woolf's Late Cultural Criticism: The Genesis of 'The Years', 'Three Guineas' and 'Between the Acts' illuminates the formation of Virginia Woolf's last three major works within larger literary and historical contexts. Wood's approach to Woolf's writings is refreshing, which integrates 'feminist-historicist' analysis with genetic criticism, a French school of textual studies that reconstructs the genesis of literary texts through published and pre-publication materials, or what geneticists have called 'avant-textes' (pre-texts) ... Examining an extensive gathering of sources, ranging from Woolf's reading notes, research scrapbooks, holograph and typescript drafts, manuscripts, and proofs to her diaries, essays, and correspondence, Wood deftly synthesizes critical interpretations of Woolf's evolving aesthetic practices and political stance with detailed analysis of authorial considerations under the influence of contemporary writing and political climate in the last decade of Woolf's life."
--Journal of Modern Literature

Author Bio

Alice Wood is Lecturer in English Literature at De Montfort University, UK.