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Archive for May, 2017

Give a listen to masterful reading of Virginia Woolf’s “Shakespeare’s Sister”

Posted in A Room of One's Own, films, tagged , , , , , on Thursday 11 May 2017| Leave a Comment »

In the video posted here, Fiona Shaw does a masterful reading of “Shakespeare’s Sister” from Virginia Woolf’s feminist polemic,  A Room of One’s Own (1929), which was based on a series of lectures Woolf gave at Cambridge University in October 1928.

Woolf’s speech is one of several featured in the digital project “Figures of Speech,” presented by the Almeida Theatre in London.

The project places history’s greatest speeches centre stage through a series of films read by well-known actors speaking the words of important historical figures and moments, to explore how they resonate in 2017.

Besides Woolf’s speech, the project also includes talks by:

  • Labour Party Politician Neil Kinnock spoken by Ashley Walters
  • American politician Harvey Milk spoken by Ian McKellen
  • Nelson Mandela spoken by Lucian Msamati
  • AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser spoken by Nicola Walker

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Woolf conference 2019 back in the U.S.

Posted in Virginia Woolf on Wednesday 3 May 2017| 2 Comments »

This just in: After three years in England, the 29th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf will be held in the U.S.A.

It will be hosted by Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio, from June 6-9, 2019. Drew Shannon, associate professor of English at the university, will coordinate the conference.

More details to come.

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Virginia Woolf as a paper doll — and other commodities

Posted in commodification, Virginia Woolf, tagged on Monday 1 May 2017| Leave a Comment »

Depiction of Woolf as literary great is not so great

In this set of Literary Greats Paper Dolls from Dover, Virginia Woolf stands among the greats: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dressed up as Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie playing Miss Marple, William Shakespeare as Hamlet.

Woolf, however, doesn’t fare as well. For instead of dressing Woolf as a character from one of her well-known works — say Clarissa from Mrs. Dalloway — this collection of  35 paper dolls of famous authors, depicts Woolf in a straightjacket.

The jury is out on this one

However, she may be treated more respectfully in this set of Literary Paper Dolls, as she is included among 16 literary greats. But since she is not depicted in the illustration or described in the text, it’s hard to know.

If anyone owns a set of these dolls, please let us know how Woolf appears by posting a comment below.

I can’t help but wonder if an artistic Woolfian should design a paper doll of our own doll, along with appropriate costumes that give dear Virginia the respect she deserves.

Woolf Commodified: Virginia Woolf dolls and other items displayed at the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf.

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