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Virginia Woolf

 
 

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Study Questions

 
What happened in Virginia's childhood that made her ambivalent and somewhat fearful of male sexuality and how did she compensate?
 
 
How was the Bloomsbury world different from the world in which Virginia had grown up?
 
 
Summarize Virginia's stance on talented women writers and their place in society, as well as the opportunities afforded them in which to practice their art.
 
 
 

Essay Topics

 
Why were women not afforded the opportunity to attend university, and what were they expected to do instead?
 
Describe Virginia's pattern of composition; that is, what kind of mental cycles did she go through before, during and after writing a novel?
 
How did World War One affect Virginia's career and, more importantly, how did it affect her writing, as well as that of many of the Modernist writers?
 
Describe the dynamics in the relationship between Clive Bell and Virginia. What brought them together after a few years of animosity?
 
Why did other artists and British society at large find the Bloomsbury Group so threatening?
 
Describe the dynamics of Virginia's relationship with Lytton Strachey? What kinds of rivalry, what kinds of love?
 
Describe the philosophy, or modus operandi, used by the Bloomsbury Group in order to encourage free and open discussion (hint: a philosophy promoted by G.E. Moore)
 
Name some of Virginia's Modernist contemporaries and compare and contrast their work to hers.
 
 
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