New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf

New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf by Marcus, Jane. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780803230705.

Recent feminist criticism has revolutionized the way we view modern literature, none more than the stories and novels of Virginia Woolf. Jane Marcus here collects twelve provocative new essays by women scholars, all of them taking feminist critical approaches to yield fresh readings of Woolfs work. Ellen Hawkes "The Magical Garden of Women" and Jane Marcuss "Thinking Back through Our Mothers" explore Woolfs relationships with women and offer a historical approach to her identification with other women writers. Marcus points out Woolfs technical achievement in the creation of a demotic chorus, the "collective sublime," in direct opposition to the "egotistical sublime" of male writers. Sara Ruddicks "Private Brothers/Public World" compares Woolfs relations with real and fictional brothers. Judy Little revises all previous readings of Jacobs Room by treating it as parody. J. J. Wilsons "Why Is Orlando Difficult?" broaches the central problem of Woolfs most notorious novel. Jane Lilienfelds investigation of To the Lighthouse provides new insight into the Ramsays marriage. Suzette Henkes reading of Mrs. Dalloway detects an interlacing of feminism and Christian mysticism in the novel. Madeline Moores essay on The Voyage Out explains that puzzling novel in terms of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, again a mother-daughter relationship. Susan Squier, overturning established opinion, argues that They Years is one of Woolfs most important novels. Louise DeSalvos "Shakespeares Other Sister" analyzes an unpublished Woolf story. Nora Eisenberg uses "Anon," an unpublished manuscript in the Berg Collections, to elucidate Between the Acts.