Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London

The present article endeavours to shed light on some unlikely yet deep-seated affinities between William Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf, in particular on their common love of roaming. Although Wordsworth’s country rambles have often been associated with the kind of patriarchal culture epitomised by W...

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Main Authors: Laurent Folliot, Juliana Lopoukhine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2019-12-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/9128
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author Laurent Folliot
Juliana Lopoukhine
author_facet Laurent Folliot
Juliana Lopoukhine
author_sort Laurent Folliot
collection DOAJ
description The present article endeavours to shed light on some unlikely yet deep-seated affinities between William Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf, in particular on their common love of roaming. Although Wordsworth’s country rambles have often been associated with the kind of patriarchal culture epitomised by Woolf’s father Leslie Stephen (who even penned an essay entitled “In Praise of Walking”), the London perambulations recounted in Book VII of The Prelude present suggestive analogies, as well as contrasts, with Woolf’s Modernist city heuristics. Both were, in a sense, outsiders to the metropolitan space they negotiated in writing, and both were keenly aware of living through a moment of historical crisis and opportunity. Reading Wordsworth and Woolf alongside each other should make for an enriched understanding of urban flânerie in British literature, by suggesting how its course was shaped along various ideological and gender fault lines, and also what enduring perplexities beset the writer’s task of engaging with the modern city.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1272-3819
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language English
publishDate 2019-12-01
publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
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spelling doaj-art-9fed3c68fb5840839a9da9d8834891232025-01-30T13:47:24ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022019-12-012710.4000/sillagescritiques.9128Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in LondonLaurent FolliotJuliana LopoukhineThe present article endeavours to shed light on some unlikely yet deep-seated affinities between William Wordsworth and Virginia Woolf, in particular on their common love of roaming. Although Wordsworth’s country rambles have often been associated with the kind of patriarchal culture epitomised by Woolf’s father Leslie Stephen (who even penned an essay entitled “In Praise of Walking”), the London perambulations recounted in Book VII of The Prelude present suggestive analogies, as well as contrasts, with Woolf’s Modernist city heuristics. Both were, in a sense, outsiders to the metropolitan space they negotiated in writing, and both were keenly aware of living through a moment of historical crisis and opportunity. Reading Wordsworth and Woolf alongside each other should make for an enriched understanding of urban flânerie in British literature, by suggesting how its course was shaped along various ideological and gender fault lines, and also what enduring perplexities beset the writer’s task of engaging with the modern city.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/9128William WordsworthVirginia WoolfLondonModernismRomanticismflânerie
spellingShingle Laurent Folliot
Juliana Lopoukhine
Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
Sillages Critiques
William Wordsworth
Virginia Woolf
London
Modernism
Romanticism
flânerie
title Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
title_full Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
title_fullStr Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
title_full_unstemmed Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
title_short Writing Out of Place: Wordsworth and Woolf in London
title_sort writing out of place wordsworth and woolf in london
topic William Wordsworth
Virginia Woolf
London
Modernism
Romanticism
flânerie
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/9128
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentfolliot writingoutofplacewordsworthandwoolfinlondon
AT julianalopoukhine writingoutofplacewordsworthandwoolfinlondon