Virginia Woolf - Objects, Things, Matter - (Virginia Woolf - Variations) by Laci Mattison (Paperback)

About the Book

The first book-length account of Woolf's vital, active and strange objects, things and matter.

Book Synopsis

Virginia Woolf's deep and creative interest in materiality is not only illuminated by but precedes current theorisations of objects, things and matter - among them, new materialism, object-oriented ontology and thing theory. Through both critical and creative engagements, contributors explore the possibilities and limitations of these theoretical accounts: what new readings they afford; what they say that Woolf has already shown us; and how Woolf goes beyond or can't be fully captured by these ideas. This volume thus gathers various, sometimes even contradictory, approaches on the topic; in turn, it emphasises congruences and tensions in theoretical, literary and cultural interpretations of Woolf's material investments. What emerges in Virginia Woolf - Objects, Things, Matter is an account of how Woolf reveals things to be vital, active and strange by refiguring the relationship between subject and object and, at times, even inverting, subverting or redefining those very terms.

Review Quotes

Thinking through things has been fundamental to twenty-first century modernist studies so far. Deploying this new work in diverse ways, the pieces in Laci Mattison's collection do things of their own with the matters and objects to be found in Woolf's writing. A thought-provoking assemblage.--Rachel Bowlby, University College London

This exciting collection constitutes an important landmark in work on Woolf and materiality. Mattison's innovatively structured volume offers a vivid diversity of viewpoints and approaches, including theoretically focused essays, creative responses and close readings which collectively animate as never before Woolf's engagement with things, objects and matter.--Bryony Randall, University of Glasgow