EN3VW: Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury

Module code: EN3VW

Module provider: English Literature; School of Humanities

Credits: 20

Level: 6

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Dr Madeleine Davies , email: m.k.davies@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s): Before taking this module, you must have at least 40 credits of EN-coded modules at Part 1 (except for visiting students). (Open)

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 3 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Virginia Woolf was the ‘founding mother’ of classic literary feminism; this module introduces students to her dazzling writing and connects it with our own era’s struggles, controversies and debates. 

The module considers a range of Woolf’s writing, in novels, essays, and hybridised forms. Much of the discussion on the module is generated through feminist perspectives because Virginia Woolf gave women a critical vocabulary in which to understand the links between patriarchy and women’s poverty, between writing and sex, and between articulation and freedom. Via the winding pathways of this writer’s novels and essays, the module introduces students to a female author whose influence on later generations of feminist thinking and writing was profound.  

EN3VW does not ignore Woolf’s dazzling wit, and nor does it evade some problematic issues to which we are more sensitive than Woolf’s own generation: these include class-based social snobbery, antisemitism and implicit assumptions around ‘whiteness’, all of which often cause critical blind-spots in Woolf’s writing. Consideration of these issues is included not to undermine what Woolf wrote but to re-nuance it from a contemporary perspective. This also provides the opportunity for reflection on the impact of class, ethnicity and race on the relationship between a homogenous patriarchy and those it marginalises and/or excludes. Woolf’s silences and contradictions, her assumptions and evasions, can prove as illuminating as her razor-sharp analysis of sovereignty, autonomy and agency. 

EN3VW, then, introduces students to one of the most influential authors of the twentieth-century, considers her contexts, enjoys her wit, reads closely and interprets widely, and links the whole to contemporary debates. Several students comment how ‘contemporary’ Woolf seems and are often surprised (if not shocked) by the number of debates relevant to women’s autonomy that remain unresolved to this day. In learning about an author often writing about the workings of power and capital in the early part of last century, we also learn a great deal about the workings of power and capital in our own.  

Assessment is via a 10-minute presentation (+ 5 minute questions) delivered in-class between weeks 3 and 11 of Semester 2 (20% of the module mark), and via a 2,500-word assessed essay submitted in Week 1 of the Semester 2 Assessment Period (worth 80% of the overall mark for the module). 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Apply discipline-specific practices of close reading, interpretative analysis and critical argument
2. Undertake autonomous learning, enquiry and research within the discipline of English literature, applying their mastery of relevant knowledge, skills and methods
3. Articulate their own and other people’s ideas concisely, accurately, and clearly
4. Value personal, social, civic, and global perspectives, looking beyond any immediate task or question to its wider contexts

Module content

Three novels may be studied on this module (potentially The Voyage Out, Jacob’s Room, Mrs Dalloway), together with a selection of essays drawn from a single volume of Woolf’s essays (potentially including ‘Modern Novels’, ‘Character in Fiction’, ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’, Street Haunting’,  ‘Professions for Women’, ‘Memories of a Working Women’s Guild’); the module concludes with an extended emphasis on the lastingly influential A Room of One’s Own. 

A weekly one-hour lecture provides an introduction to each text and it indicates also the issues we will discuss in the subsequent seminar hours.  

Contexts discussed on the module include the aftermath of World War One, literary Modernism, feminism of the 1920s and 1930s, socio-cultural change in the inter-war period, the Depression and the hunger marches of the 1920s and 1930s, emancipatory legal reforms of the 1919-1928 period, and the Bloomsbury Group. Issues of ‘whiteness’, education, authorship, and social class will also be included. 

The module has ample library resources and students are encouraged to connect with a range of critical readings in order to develop their own interpretations and viewpoints. 

All teaching is in-person and is split between lecture and seminar hours. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

All teaching is in-person and is split between lecture and seminar hours.  Discussion of each text generally occupies all of the available contact hours in a single week. Occasionally, discussion of a text may occupy the contact hours of two teaching weeks.

Every text studied on the module (including Woolf’s short essays) has an attached lecture written by the module convenor. This produces an introduction to each text and it indicates also the issues we will discuss in the subsequent seminar hours. 

The module has ample library and Blackboard resources and students are encouraged to connect with a range of critical readings in order to develop their own interpretations and viewpoints. 

Study hours

At least 33 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Students can submit for feedback/feedforward up to 1000 words in response to an essay title which will be supplied early in the semester. Students will receive written feedback and can also arrange an appointment with the module leader to discuss this feedback further. 

Reassessment

Additional costs