Virginia Woolf and Capitalism - (Virginia Woolf - Variations) by Clara Jones (Hardcover)

About the Book

Refines our understanding of Virginia Woolf as a politically engaged writer

Book Synopsis

Virginia Woolf and Capitalism explores Woolf's engagement with and critiques of capitalism throughout her life, arguing for its central importance in our understanding of her as an author, activist and publisher. Galvanised by existing scholarship on the place of economics, class, gender and empire in Woolf's writing, this collection draws attention to her thinking about history, labour and economics and gives space for understandings of Woolf in the context of our own late-capitalist moment. Chapters by leading and emerging scholars range across Woolf's oeuvre in all its generic diversity, from her earliest short fiction and Night and Day to Three Guineas and Between the Acts, showcasing a range of critical approaches from the archival to the creative to the pedagogical. This collection demonstrates how productive and provocative thinking about Woolf's fiction and non-fiction through the lens of capitalism can be for Woolf scholars.

From the Back Cover

[headline]Refines our understanding of Virginia Woolf as a politically engaged writer Virginia Woolf and Capitalism explores Woolf's engagement with and critiques of capitalism throughout her life, arguing for its central importance in our understanding of her as an author, activist and publisher. Galvanised by existing scholarship on the place of economics, class, gender and empire in Woolf's writing, this collection draws attention to her thinking about history, labour and economics and gives space for understandings of Woolf in the context of our own late-capitalist moment. Chapters by leading and emerging scholars range across Woolf's oeuvre in all its generic diversity, from her earliest short fiction and Night and Day to Three Guineas and Between the Acts, showcasing a range of critical approaches from the archival to the creative to the pedagogical. This collection demonstrates how productive and provocative thinking about Woolf's fiction and non-fiction through the lens of capitalism can be for Woolf scholars. [bio]Clara Jones is Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature at King's College London. She is the author of Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist (2016).

Review Quotes

Virginia Woolf and Capitalism successfully produces new resonances even in old readers by making them attuned to aspects of Woolf's words that risked being neglected or positively obscured. Rich in detail and nuanced in its analysis, this collection of essays is already part of the compulsory reading on Woolf for scholars, students, and common readers alike.--Luca Pinelli "Synergies: A Journal of English Literatures and Cultures"

This anthology provides a dynamic and fresh perspective on both the legacy and the limits of Woolf's feminist call to action.
Summing Up: Highly recommended.

--V. A. Murrenus Pilmaier, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay "CHOICE"

As part of Edinburgh University Press's new "Virginia Woolf--Variations" series, edited by Derek Ryan, Virginia Woolf and Capitalism continues the work of looking beyond Woolf's celebrated contributions to feminism and aestheticism, leaning instead towards critiquing her relationship with other, equally crucial, aspects of early twentieth-century and interwar life. Woolf continues to occupy an ambivalent space in discussions of class and capitalism. [...] Virginia Woolf and Capitalism consequently proves an important, timely, and original contribution not only to the fields of new modernist and working-class studies, but also to our understandings of Woolf's place within (and perceptions of) various capitalist modes of production--both during her lifetime and in her afterlives.--John D. Attridge, Regent College London "The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945"

The time is ripe for this exciting collection on Virginia Woolf's economic thinking. Clara Jones has assembled an impressive set of scholars to explore Woolf's efforts, powerful but partial, to critique capitalism from within. Virginia Woolf and Capitalism is at once a resource and a rallying cry.

--Anne Fernald, Fordham University

About the Author

Clara Jones is Senior Lecturer in Modern Literature at King's College London. She is the author of Virginia Woolf: Ambivalent Activist (2016) and is currently at work on a new book on the politics of interwar women writers and activists, including Rosamond Lehmann, Ellen Wilkinson, Elizbeth Bowen, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Amabel Williams-Ellis.