New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf - Edited by Jane Marcus

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan

Collection of feminist essays reexamining Virginia Woolf’s life, works, and literary techniques through a range of critical approaches. Contributions from multiple scholars address major novels and themes, including gendered memory and inheritance, women’s communal spaces, parodic bildungsroman forms, pastoral rewritings, and the politics of deception in Woolf’s short fiction. Includes an edited introduction, acknowledgements, contributor notes, a structured contents outline, and a detailed index for navigation and reference.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages291

Reading Time7 h 28 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Acknowledgements

Notes on the Contributors

Introduction

Thinking Back through Our Mothers

Woolf's 'Magical Garden of Women'

Shakespeare's Other Sister

Some Female Versions of Pastoral: The Voyage Out and Matriarchal Mythologies

Jacob's Room as Comedy: Woolf's Parodic Bildungsroman

Mrs Dalloway: the Communion of Saints

Where the Spear Plants Grew: the Ramsays' Marriage in To the Lighthouse

Why is Orlando Difficult?

Private Brother, Public World

The Politics of City Space in The Years

What is to Console Us?

Virginia Woolf's Last Words on Words: Between the Acts and 'Anon'

Index

NEW FEMNSTEsVIRGINIAWOOLF —EDITED BYJANE MARCUS— NEW FEMINIST ESSAYS ON VIRGINIA WOOLF NEW FEMINIST ESSAYSON VIRGINIA WOOLF Edited byJANE MARCUS M Jane Marcus 1981 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981978-0-333-28997-6All rights reserved.No part of this publication may bereproduced or transmitted,in any form or by any means,without permission First published 1981 byTHE MACMILLAN PRESS LTDLondon and BasingstokeCompanies and representativesthroughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-05488-6 ISBN 978-1-349-05486-2(eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05486-2 For Lisaa daughter to think forward through Contents Acknowledgements 1XX1 Notes on the Contributors Introduction xiii Jane Marcus 1 Thinking Back through Our MothersJane Marcus 1 2 Woolf's 'Magical Garden of Women'31Ellen Hawkes 3 Shakespeare's Other Sister61Louise A.DeSalvo 4 Some Female Versions of Pastoral:The Voyage Outand Matriarchal Mythologies82 Madeline Moore 5 Jacob's Room as Comedy:Woolf's ParodicBildungsroman105 Judy Little 6 Mrs Dalloway:the Communion of Saints125Suzette A.Henke 7 Where the Spear Plants Grew:the Ramsays'Marriage in To the Lighthouse148Jane Lilienfeld viii 8 Why is Orlando Difficult?170 J.J.Wilson 9 Private Brother,Public World185Sara Ruddick 10 The Politics of City Space in The Years:StreetLove,Pillar Boxes and Bridges216 Susan Squier 11 What is to Console Us?:the Politics ofDeception in Woolf's Short Stories238 Selma Meyerowitz 12 Virginia Woolf's Last Words on Words:Between the Acts and'Anon' 253 Nora Eisenberg 267 Index # Acknowledgements The editor and contributors would like to thank the followingfor their help with the preparation of this book:the Henry W.and Albert A.Berg Collection,Astor,Lenox and TildenFoundation,the New York Public Library and its helpfulcurator,Dr Lola L.Szladits.They also wish to thank the manycolleagues,friends and students who have contributed somuch to new feminist criticism of Virginia Woolf,and aregratefulto those who have provided a forum for their work inthe Modern Language Association Woolf Seminar,and theconferences at Santa Cruz,Princeton and Bucknell,wheremany of these papers were first read.Brenda Silver has beenan invaluable help in answering our questions about VirginiaWoolf's reading notes,and is a silent contributor to thisvolume. The editor wishes to thank the National Endowment for theHumanities for a research fellowship which supported thiswork,the staff of the Matematisk Institut,Aarhus,Denmark,for their generous help in providing facilities in which topursue this project,and Michael Marcus,whobuilt her a studyin which to finish it. The editor and publishers wish to thank Angelica Garnettand Quentin Bell,on behalf of the Literary Estate of VirginiaWoolf,and The Hogarth Press Ltd and Harcourt BraceJovanovich Inc.,for permission to quote from the followingpublished works:extracts from Jacob's Room,The Years,Between the Acts,The Common Reader,Monday or Tuesday,AHaunted House and Other Stories,The Moment and Other Essays,AWriter's Diary,Three Guineas,The Letters of Virginia Woolf (vols1-5),Collected Essays (vols 1-4),The Second Common Reader,TheWaves,A Room ofOne's Own,To the Lighthouse,The Voyage Ou,ThePargiters,Mrs Dalloway,and Orlando by Virginia Woolf,andMoments of Being:Unpublished Autobiographical Writings of Acknowledgements Virginia Woolf,edited by Jeanne Schulkind,C1920by George H.Doran Co.;C1921,1922,1925,1927,1929,1931,1932,1937,1938,1941,1944,1948,1972 by Harcourt BraceJovanovich Inc.;◎1928 by Virginia Woolf;C1948,1949,1950,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1959,1960,1965,1966,1967,1969 by Leonard Woolf;C1976 by Harcourt BraceJovanovich Inc.and Marjorie T.Parsons;◎1975,1976,1977by Quentin Bell and Angelica Garnett. # Notes on the Contributors LoUISE DESALVo teaches at Farleigh Dickinson University.She is the editor of the early draft of The Voyage Out calledMelymbrosia,published in a limited edition by

FAQs

What is the focus of New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf?

The book presents feminist critical essays that re-read Virginia Woolf’s works and ideas, connecting themes such as gender, community, and narrative strategy to specific texts.

Who edited the collection and who contributes?

The volume is edited by Jane Marcus and includes essays by multiple scholars, with contributor bios provided in “Notes on the Contributors”.

Which types of Woolf works are discussed?

The contents cover major novels and related prose, including Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, To the Lighthouse, The Years, and Woolf’s short stories, with attention to recurring political and artistic concerns.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan