How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses
Virginia Woolf reflects on her own medium in relation to the notion of personality. This article reads her essay “Personalities” (1947), in which she explores the reader’s response to the personalities of writers, in light of three essays that discuss the art of acting embodied by three celebrated n...
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/16682 |
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| author | Caroline Marie |
| author_facet | Caroline Marie |
| author_sort | Caroline Marie |
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| description | Virginia Woolf reflects on her own medium in relation to the notion of personality. This article reads her essay “Personalities” (1947), in which she explores the reader’s response to the personalities of writers, in light of three essays that discuss the art of acting embodied by three celebrated nineteenth-century actresses, “The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt” (1908), “Rachel” (1911) and “Ellen Terry” (1941). It argues that Woolf theatricalises literature to understand it through the art of acting, in particular the building up of characters. Actresses embodying nineteenth-century acting, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhard and Rachel, as well as Woolf’s contemporary Lydia Lopokova, whose performance is reviewed in “Twelfth Night at the Old Vic” (1933), mediate Woolf’s reflection on literature from different perspectives: writing with the body, reading with gestures, creating from anecdotes, and becoming other. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-08010ee8a4f843ae9f5f22796b897816 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-08010ee8a4f843ae9f5f22796b8978162025-01-30T13:48:26ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022024-12-013710.4000/13199How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on ActressesCaroline MarieVirginia Woolf reflects on her own medium in relation to the notion of personality. This article reads her essay “Personalities” (1947), in which she explores the reader’s response to the personalities of writers, in light of three essays that discuss the art of acting embodied by three celebrated nineteenth-century actresses, “The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt” (1908), “Rachel” (1911) and “Ellen Terry” (1941). It argues that Woolf theatricalises literature to understand it through the art of acting, in particular the building up of characters. Actresses embodying nineteenth-century acting, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhard and Rachel, as well as Woolf’s contemporary Lydia Lopokova, whose performance is reviewed in “Twelfth Night at the Old Vic” (1933), mediate Woolf’s reflection on literature from different perspectives: writing with the body, reading with gestures, creating from anecdotes, and becoming other.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/16682bodygesturetheatre studiesWoolf (Virginia)Victorian theatreactress |
| spellingShingle | Caroline Marie How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses Sillages Critiques body gesture theatre studies Woolf (Virginia) Victorian theatre actress |
| title | How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses |
| title_full | How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses |
| title_fullStr | How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses |
| title_full_unstemmed | How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses |
| title_short | How to Undo Things and Selves with Words: Understanding Literature as Praxis in Virginia Woolf’s Essays on Actresses |
| title_sort | how to undo things and selves with words understanding literature as praxis in virginia woolf s essays on actresses |
| topic | body gesture theatre studies Woolf (Virginia) Victorian theatre actress |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/16682 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carolinemarie howtoundothingsandselveswithwordsunderstandingliteratureaspraxisinvirginiawoolfsessaysonactresses |