Does the bronze statue of the new Indian Dalit Goddess of English resemble Virginia Woolf? That
question was posed to the VWoolf Listserv and linked readers to the BBC photo and story.
Maybe it does. Or maybe it is the medium — combined with the hairdo — that provides the resemblance.
As soon as I saw the photo, I thought of Italian sculptor Valentina Mazzei‘s lovely bronze bust of Virginia Woolf. It was on display at the art exhibition that was part of the 2010 Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and the Natural World at Georgetown University.
Mary Ellen Foley posted the link to the Goddess of English story, and several list readers responded to her suggestion that it bore a resemblance to Woolf.
Harish Trivedi thought the statue “had too round and even plump a face.” Self-identified common reader Mark Scott thought the statue did look like Woolf.
But Trivedi also spoke to the irony of the goddess’s name. “And as for Indians knowing English, there are not really that many of us around, even after a couple of centuries of British rule. 5% of the population? 10% ? Even 20%? Estimates vary, depending on what is meant by ‘knowing’ English,” he wrote.
You can see more photos of Valentina and her Woolf bust here.
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