An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine is described as “a nuanced rendering of one woman’s life in the Middle East.”
The author writes from the point of view of his reclusive septuagenarian Lebanese narrator, Aaliya, who muses on literature and philosophy as she manages her increasingly challenging life. A translator working from English and French into Arabic, Aaliya discourses at length about her work and the nuances and difficulties of translation, including a mixed assessment of Constance Garnett’s translations of the Russians.
Noting that Margaret Yourcenar translated Virginia Woolf’s The Waves into French, Aaliya the critic says, “I can’t bring myself to read her translation.” Later, she talks about projects she might yet undertake: “I can translate Mrs. Dalloway. I’ll spend that famous day inside Clarissa’s head as she prepares to host the party. Or work on A Room of One’s Own in a soggy apartment of my own.”
Further linking this novel with Woolf, Stacey Goldring, the creator of NPR’s Chapter Endnotes, remarks that “Aaliya is Clarissa. Beirut is her London. Virginia Woolf’s protagonist leaves her place to run errands to prep for a party. Aaliya has to escape her apartment in order to avoid a neighbor’s knock.”
Below is information provided by email from conference organizers.
Top four plenary events
Conference organizers have lined up four plenary events.
The conference will include a plenary performance. Ellen McLaughlin and Kathleen Chalfant have collaborated and will present THE PARTY—a one-woman play written by McLaughlin that weaves together three stories Woolf wrote while working on Mrs. Dalloway – “The New Dress,” “Together and Apart,” and “A Summing Up.” All three stories take place at Mrs. Dalloway’s party. All the words are Woolf’s, and all the characters are played by Chalfant. Organizers say they are also hatching an additional performance piece.
Mary Gordon, Rachel Dickstein and Ellen Mclaughlin at a performance of “Septimus and Clarissa” in New York City in October 2011.
Carrie Rohman of Lafayette College will deliver a plenary lecture. Check out her recent Print Plus article on Isadora Duncan’s “Creatural Aesthetics”. Rohman is also the author of two brilliant studies: Stalking the Subject: Modernism and the Animal (2009) and Choreographies of the Living: Bioaesthetics in Literature, Art, and Performance (2018).
Mark Hussey of Pace University; Urmila Seshagiri of U of Tennessee, Knoxville; Drew Shannon of Mount St. Joseph U; and Jean Moorcroft Wilson of U of London will join us for a plenary panel. The panel will cover a range of issues that will thread through the topics of “Archive, Edition, Life.” See more about them and their work.
We’re also organizing some pre- and post-conference workshops, so if you wish to come early and/or stay late, you’ll definitely want to participate in these.
Vermilion, South Dakota and USD welcome you
Conference organizers wrote, “And one more thing: We want to be clear. We are not our legislature. The University of South Dakota and Vermillion will provide a safe, cozy, welcoming place to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf. We’re going to have a lot of fun, take care of, and learn so much from each other.”
From the BBC Radio Drama Collection come adaptations of seven of Virginia Woolf’s pioneering modernist novels, available on CD and as a digital download.
Out since last April, each is a full-cast dramatization by such notable actors as Vanessa Redgrave and Kristin Scott-Thomas. Each includes sound effects — background chatter and the pouring of tea in Night and Day; horses’ hoofs pounding the road and trumpets sounding in Orlando; the gramophone playing, the cows mooing, and the audience clapping in Between the Acts.
The original radio broadcasts took place between October 1980 and May 2012.
The audio versions of Woolf’s novels are available in the UK and the U.S. The cost of the 14-disk CD set in the U.S. is around $30. Playing time is 11 hours and 55 minutes.
