In a world where few things are free, you can read Woolf and Ethics: Selected Papers from the 31st Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf at no cost. In this open-access volume, 25 papers address the theme from a range of perspectives.
Amy C. Smith and Paola Brinkley co-edited the volume, and Benjamin Hagen edits the series. The late Suzanne Bellamy created and donated the volume’s art.
What’s in the volume
Here are just a few of the 25 articles in the volume of selected papers from the 34th conference, held remotely June 9-12, 2023, at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas:
“The Ethics of Representation: Woolf Writing Working Women” by Aili Petterson Peeker
“The Ethics of Wonder(ing) in To the Lighthouse by Eret Talviste
“Virginia Woolf, Jacques Derrida, Mysticism, and Ethics by Angela Harris
“’Floating Incidents’: The Ethics of the Essay as a Life-Writing Form in ‘A Sketch of the Past’ by Julia Dalloway
“Time & Tide, Form & Fold” by Benjamin Hagen, Shilo McGiff, Laci Mattison
“‘Daddy’s Girl’: Fathers, Daughters, and Female Resistance in Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas and Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto” by Kimberly Coates
“’Thinking Peace into Existence’: Teaching the World War II–Era Work of Virginia Woolf, Jessica Dismorr, and Elizabeth Bowen” by Emily M. Hinnov
“’The World Is a Work of Art’: The Weaving of Fact and Fiction in Between the Acts” by Lucas Leita Borba
“On the Ethics of Teaching: Virginia Woolf’s Essays” by Beth Rigel Daugherty
“Translation as Reading: Jacob’s Room by Maria Rita Drumond Viana
View a list of the most popular papers in the volume.
Background on the series
Virginia Woolf: Selected Papers (VWSP) is an open-access publication funded by the International Virginia Woolf Society and edited by organizers of the Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf (ACVW).
The open-access annual publication continues the Selected Papers/Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf, a series that began in 1992 with the publication of its first volume, Virginia Woolf Miscellanies, which collected papers presented at the first annual conference on Woolf at Pace University in 1991.
The final print volume in the Selected Papers series was volume one and volume two of Virginia Woolf, Europe, and Peace, a collection of chapters that expand presentations given at the 28th annual conference at the University of Kent in 2018.
The open-access volumes of the VWSP will feature original scholarly papers delivered at Woolf conferences by international researchers, scholars, students, and common readers.
Proposals for critical papers on any topic concerning Woolf’s work are welcome. A specific panel theme may be chosen, depending on the proposals received. Please note that this panel may be virtual.
How to submit
Please submit by email a cover page with name, email address, mailing address, phone number, professional affiliation, and title of paper, and a second anonymous page containing a 250-word paper proposal, with title, to Emily M. Hinnov, ehinnov@ccsnh.edu, by Monday, Aug. 26.
The deadline has been extended to March 31 for the call for papers for the first-ever conference on Virginia Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, which will be held at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris on Oct. 24-25, 2024. The conference title is “Leslie Stephen: Thinking With and Against His Time International Conference.”
Virginia and Leslie Stephen
Proposal parameters
Abstracts of about 300 words, for 25-minute papers in English, together with a short (100-word) author biography, should be sent to the organizers by March 31, 2024, at: leslie.stephen.conference@gmail.com.
Organizers are Claire Davison (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris); Isabelle Gadoin (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris); and Marie Laniel (Université de Picardie, Amiens).
Post-conference collection
A selection of peer-reviewed articles based on papers given at the conference will be collected for publication. In case of difficulties tracing Stephen’s works, please contact the organizers at leslie.stephen.conference@gmail.com, who will be happy to share links and resources.
Confirmed keynote speakers
Prof. Terry Gifford (Bath Spa University)
Dr. Jane Potter (Oxford Brookes University)
Dr. Trudi Tate (Clare Hall, University of Cambridge)
About Leslie Stephen
Early advocate of evolutionism, one of the first openly declared agnostics, editor of the Cornhill Magazine, pioneering mountaineer, moral philosopher, founder and general editor of the DNB: there are so many more facets to Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) than those recorded by his daughter Virginia Woolf, who memorably paid tribute to his “strong,” “healthy out of door, moor striding mind”. By unfolding all the contradictions and paradoxes of the character, this first international conference on Leslie Stephen means to reclaim the full complexity of his thought and legacy.
Thinking with and against his time, Stephen held a key position at the heart of the Victorian literary sceneand was an impressively prolific writer, profoundly engaged with the religious, philosophical and social debates of his age. A highly respected journalist and critic, he edited the Cornhill Magazine from 1871 to 1882, publishing works by George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, John Addington Symonds, Henry James and R.L. Stevenson, and was the author of hundreds of essays, published over the course of forty years in periodicals, such as the Fortnightly Review, Fraser’s Magazine, Macmillan’s Magazine, Mind, the National Review, the Nineteenth Century, the Saturday Review or the Pall Mall Gazette, a vast oeuvre now finally accessible thanks to online databases.
His devotion to knowledge and integrity were such that he preferred to break with the academic world of Cambridge rather than compromise with the Church. Heir to the Clapham Sect, Stephen engaged with the theological debates of his time to the point of gradually and publicly embracing agnosticism, a form of radicalism that coexisted from then on with forms of traditionalism.
His own prolific output bears witness to his encyclopaedic mind and his boundless curiosity for all the key issues of the day, however polemical: the anti-slavery movement, agnosticism, educational and social reform… Both a man of his time and a pioneer, Stephen explored new epistemological modes in keeping with the expanding frontiers of his age, while remaining profoundly anchored in some of the values and hierarchies of the day.
The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), his life’s work, and one of his most ambitious projects, is the finest example of his desire to define new modes of classification and new forms of expression for the expanding knowledge of his time. Breaking with the established narratives of the past, he devised a new approach to writing the biography of the nation, doing away with the grandiose tradition of commemoration. In its place, he developed a more archaeological approach, delving into the past and collating the life stories of all those who helped shape the evolution of the country.
The same pioneering spirit stoked his passion for the Alps and mountaineering, in which he proved as much a trailblazer as he did in intellectual life. It is this conquering spirit that his close friend Thomas Hardy immortalized in his poem “The Schreckhorn, With Thoughts of Leslie Stephen” (1897), which extolled his will to “venture life and limb” as well as the “quaint glooms” of his personality, when paying tribute to Stephen as the first man ever to ascend this mountain.
However daring and rigorous in his endeavours, Stephen was no less a direct heir to the Romantic tradition. An ardent poetry lover, he could quote vast swathes of the poetic canon, from Milton to Wordsworth, Tennyson and Arnold, and would rhythm both domestic life and mountaineering exploits with his recitations. Likewise, despite his allegiance to Victorian models of “Muscular Christianity”, and the manly world of clubs and fellowships, he would at times indulge in various forms of sentimentalism and melodramatic displays of emotion.
The call for papers
These are some of the contradictions that the participants to this conference are invited to explore. Similarly, his vast output deserves to be reconsidered through diverse critical paradigms, such as new materialist History, print culture studies, new sensory studies, phenomenology, affect studies and ethics, gender studies, health and disability studies.
We welcome contributions focusing on Leslie Stephen, but also on the following topics, connected with his life and times and shedding light on the larger context of his work:
Victorian encyclopaedism
Victorian periodicals, print culture, the publishing industry
Biography, the DNB, “hero-worship”
Stephen’s relations to Victorian sages and prophets
Letters, epistolarity, literary networks
Cambridge, academia, education and university reform
Gentlemen’s clubs, sociability
18th century philosophy and literature, the Enlightenment
Utilitarianism, Science, Evolutionism
The Clapham Sect, Agnosticism, Scepticism
War, the anti-slavery movement
Morality, the “science of ethics”
Mountaineering, athletics, walking, nature and travel writing
Memory, elegy, mourning, the Mausoleum Book, Virginia Woolf & Leslie Stephen
Amar Roy on “Finding Mrs. Brown: Memory, Emotion and Narratives in Virginia Woolf’s Approach to Art.”
Amrita Chakraborti on “Anti-Work Woolf: Virginia Woolf and Critiques of Waged Labour”
Matthew Biberman
Meghna Dutta, and
Tatyana Kasima on “Windows as Heterotopic Thresholds in Virginia Woolf’s Short Stories Collection ‘A Haunted House'”
How to attend
Attendance is free and registration is available at this link. Just scroll down towards the bottom of the page and register as a “Non-presenting, Zoom attendee.”
Some of the monographs in the Bloomsbury Heritage Series from Cecil Woolf Publishers. The monograph by Catherine Hollis, “Leslie Stephen as Mountaineer: Where does Mont Blanc end, and where do I begin?”, was published in 2010.
Editor’s Note: As of Feb. 19, the deadline for the call for papers has been extended to March 31.
The call for papers has gone out for the first-ever conference on Virginia Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, which will be held at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris on Oct. 24-25, 2024. The conference title is “Leslie Stephen: Thinking With and Against His Time International Conference.”
Abstracts of about 300 words, for 25-minute papers in English, together with a short (100-word) author biography, should be sent to the organizers by Jan. 31, 2024, at: leslie.stephen.conference@gmail.com.
A selection of peer-reviewed articles based on papers given at the conference will be collected for publication. In case of difficulties tracing Stephen’s works, please contact the organizers, who will be happy to share links and resources.
Organizers are Claire Davison (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris); Isabelle Gadoin (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris); and Marie Laniel (Université de Picardie, Amiens).
More details
PRISMES – EA 4398
Langues, Textes, Arts et Cultures du Monde Anglophone
CORPUS – UR-UPJV 4295
Conflits, Représentations et Dialogues dans l’Univers Anglo-Saxon
SEW – Société d’Études Woolfiennes
Confirmed keynote speakers
Dr. Jane Potter (Oxford Brookes University)
Dr. Trudi Tate (Clare Hall, University of Cambridge)
Call for papers
Early advocate of evolutionism, one of the first openly declared agnostics, editor of the Cornhill Magazine, pioneering mountaineer, moral philosopher, founder and general editor of the DNB: there are so many more facets to Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) than those recorded by his daughter Virginia Woolf, who memorably paid tribute to his “strong,” “healthy out of door, moor striding mind”. By unfolding all the contradictions and paradoxes of the character, this first international conference on Leslie Stephen means to reclaim the full complexity of his thought and legacy.
Thinking with and against his time, Stephen held a key position at the heart of the Victorian literary sceneand was an impressively prolific writer, profoundly engaged with the religious, philosophical and social debates of his age. A highly respected journalist and critic, he edited the Cornhill Magazine from 1871 to 1882, publishing works by George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, John Addington Symonds, Henry James and R.L. Stevenson, and was the author of hundreds of essays, published over the course of forty years in periodicals, such as the Fortnightly Review, Fraser’s Magazine, Macmillan’s Magazine, Mind, the National Review, the Nineteenth Century, the Saturday Review or the Pall Mall Gazette, a vast oeuvre now finally accessible thanks to online databases.
His devotion to knowledge and integrity were such that he preferred to break with the academic world of Cambridge rather than compromise with the Church. Heir to the Clapham Sect, Stephen engaged with the theological debates of his time to the point of gradually and publicly embracing agnosticism, a form of radicalism that coexisted from then on with forms of traditionalism.
His own prolific output bears witness to his encyclopaedic mind and his boundless curiosity for all the key issues of the day, however polemical: the anti-slavery movement, agnosticism, educational and social reform… Both a man of his time and a pioneer, Stephen explored new epistemological modes in keeping with the expanding frontiers of his age, while remaining profoundly anchored in some of the values and hierarchies of the day.
The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), his life’s work, and one of his most ambitious projects, is the finest example of his desire to define new modes of classification and new forms of expression for the expanding knowledge of his time. Breaking with the established narratives of the past, he devised a new approach to writing the biography of the nation, doing away with the grandiose tradition of commemoration. In its place, he developed a more archaeological approach, delving into the past and collating the life stories of all those who helped shape the evolution of the country.
The same pioneering spirit stoked his passion for the Alps and mountaineering, in which he proved as much a trailblazer as he did in intellectual life. It is this conquering spirit that his close friend Thomas Hardy immortalized in his poem “The Schreckhorn, With Thoughts of Leslie Stephen” (1897), which extolled his will to “venture life and limb” as well as the “quaint glooms” of his personality, when paying tribute to Stephen as the first man ever to ascend this mountain.
However daring and rigorous in his endeavours, Stephen was no less a direct heir to the Romantic tradition. An ardent poetry lover, he could quote vast swathes of the poetic canon, from Milton to Wordsworth, Tennyson and Arnold, and would rhythm both domestic life and mountaineering exploits with his recitations. Likewise, despite his allegiance to Victorian models of “Muscular Christianity”, and the manly world of clubs and fellowships, he would at times indulge in various forms of sentimentalism and melodramatic displays of emotion.
These are some of the contradictions that the participants to this conference are invited to explore. Similarly, his vast output deserves to be reconsidered through diverse critical paradigms, such as new materialist History, print culture studies, new sensory studies, phenomenology, affect studies and ethics, gender studies, health and disability studies.
We welcome contributions focusing on Leslie Stephen, but also on the following topics, connected with his life and times and shedding light on the larger context of his work:
Victorian encyclopaedism
Victorian periodicals, print culture, the publishing industry
Biography, the DNB, “hero-worship”
Stephen’s relations to Victorian sages and prophets
Letters, epistolarity, literary networks
Cambridge, academia, education and university reform
Gentlemen’s clubs, sociability
18th century philosophy and literature, the Enlightenment
Utilitarianism, Science, Evolutionism
The Clapham Sect, Agnosticism, Scepticism
War, the anti-slavery movement
Morality, the “science of ethics”
Mountaineering, athletics, walking, nature and travel writing
Memory, elegy, mourning, the Mausoleum Book, Virginia Woolf & Leslie Stephen
