Like many of you, I have shelves full of books at home that I have not yet read. Some have been in my possession for decades, some for years or months.
Now I am starting to stockpile DVDs and CDs as well. I am embarassed to say that among the latter is the recent release from the BBC of “The Spoken Word: The Bloomsbury Group.”
This two-disc set, which features voices of Bloomsbury that have long remained unheard, has been sitting on my shelf for months. And I have yet to peel off the cellophane.
But after reading the details on the Mantex Web site, I expect I will soon pop one in my CD player.
According to Roy Johnson, here are some of the treats that await those who own the set, which comes with a 16-page explanatory booklet:
Leonard Woolf with a Who’s Who of the Bloomsbury Group
Duncan Grant talking about the infamous Dreadnought Hoax
Frances Partridge speaking about the group’s broad influence
David Cecil detailing Virginia’s appearance and Quentin Bell describing her fashions
Angelica Garnett on various attitudes towards members of the Group
Vita Sackville-West talking about the inspiration behind Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Benedict Nicholson remembering Virginia Woolf’s visits to Sissinghurst
Elizabeth Bowen recalling Bloomsbury parties and Virginia’s antics
Ralph Partridge reminiscing about time spent with Leonard and Virginia Woolf
This inaugural conference is based around Virginia Woolf’s famous and controversial statement in an essay of 1923, often taken as indicating a possible starting-point for modernity, that
on or about December 1910, human character changed.
The groups invite scholars and practitioners from all disciplines to respond to any aspect of this statement. Relevant disciplines might include but are not restricted to literature, history of art, cultural history and the history of ideas.
Topics might include but are not restricted to:
glossing the symptoms of change in 1910 that Woolf cites in her explanation of that slogan.
broader contexts and tangents, literary, cultural, political, historical, which might include:
death of the King; Asquith government crisis; suffragettes and other political unrest;
Post-Impressionist show; Dreadnought hoax;
events beyond Britain in Europe, Mexico, Africa etc.;
books published in 1910;
activities of key cultural figures at that moment;
1910 diary entries.
philosophy on or about 1910 – idealism, pragmatism and beyond.
religion, spirituality, modernity.
periodization and theories of change.
theories and representations of ‘human character’.
1910 seen from the 1920s.
‘in or about’ or ‘on or about’?
Prepositions and temporality.
Versions of Woolf – Leonard Woolf as editor.
accuracy and arbitrariness.
Organizers have already received panel proposals in the following areas and would also welcome expressions of interest in these areas:
Scotland 1910
Film around 1910
Modernism and Theory
Women at 1910
On or about December 2010: Human Character in the Age of Climate Change
Politics 1910
The periodical scene in 1910
Literature and the visual arts
The book in 1910
1910 and middlebrow culture
Music and 1910
Europe 1910
1910 and intermodernism
Periodising the century
Theatre and 1910
Paper abstracts of 200 words; or proposals for panels, round-tables, seminars or other expressions of interest, should be sent to conference organizers Bryony Randall and Matthew Creasy via e-mail at snms@arts.gla.ac.uk by May 1
