Summer course in Cambridge 2024

There will be a rich programme of lectures, seminars, supervisions (tutorials), walks, talks, performances, and visits to places of interest in Cambridge. Our teachers include: Angela Harris, Alison Hennegan, Karina Jakubowicz, Ellie Mitchell, Ann Kennedy Smith, Trudi Tate, and Jeremy Thurlow. We will spend a week immersed in the great writings and ideas of Virginia Woolf.

The course is based on 5 texts which we will study in close detail, one book per day. There is a lecture on each work, as well as a supervision (tutorial). Based loosely on the practice in Cambridge colleges, small groups of about 4 people work with a skilled supervisor. This is a rare opportunity to look closely at Woolf’s writings and to improve your close reading skills.

We will explore the theme of childhood in Woolf’s fiction, and her own experience of childhood. How do her memories of childhood inform her fiction; and how does she think about children and childhood in her novels?

Course dates: Sunday 4 August to Friday 9 August 2024. Participants arrive Sunday 4 August and depart Saturday 10 August.

Supervisions

These are in groups of about 4 with a supervisor, 1 hour per day for 5 days.

Visits
Woolf often visited Cambridge and knew it well. Her brothers both studied at Trinity College (as did her husband-to-be, Leonard Woolf); she had friends at King’s and Newnham Colleges, and an aunt lived in Newnham village. We will visit some of the places in Cambridge that Woolf knew, visited, or wrote about, including the Wren Library at Trinity College. We will also visit Robinson College for a talk with piano recital by Jeremy Thurlow. Jeremy is a wonderful pianist and lecturer, and he will explore some of the great range of music loved by Woolf when she was young. She attended very many concerts and operas and was deeply interested in Beethoven, Wagner and Bach.

And there will be a performance of the play, Vita and Virginia by Eileen Atkins, for one night only.