Woolf and childhood
Online Summer Course 2024
Woolf and Childhood
Live Online Summer Course 2024
8-12 July 2024
The summer course in 2024 will be offered twice - once live online, and again in person in Cambridge. This page is for the online course.
Our 2024 online Virginia Woolf course will study the theme of Woolf and Childhood. Woolf writes very powerfully about her own childhood in ‘A Sketch of the Past’. A number of her novels explore the experiences and perceptions of childhood. She looks at children’s relations with parents and siblings, children’s resistance to parental tyranny, children’s experiences of grief and loss, the difficulties and joys of passing from childhood into adult life.
There will be a rich programme of lectures, a seminar, supervisions (tutorials), and talks. Our teachers include leading Woolf scholars and experienced Cambridge supervisors. We will spend a week immersed in the great writings and ideas of Virginia Woolf.
The course is based on 5 books 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 3 or 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: Monday 8 to Friday 12 July 2024
Times
• Lectures - 10.00 to 11.00 am British Summer Time. We will make the lectures available to people in other time zones with recordings as needed.
• Supervisions (tutorials) - provisional times: 9.00-10 am, 11.30 am–12.30 pm and 3.00-4.00 pm; possibly also 6.00–7.00 pm British Summer Time. This will allow people in European and American time zones to come at a reasonable time of day. The supervisions are at the heart of the course, allowing you to work in a very small group, guided by a supervisor.
• Talks and reading: approx. 2.00-2.45 UK time.
Lectures and talks will be recorded, so you can hear them again throughout the course. Lectures will also be pre-recorded, so that people in US time zones can hear them at a convenient time (probably the day before) ahead of the day’s supervisions. The supervisions are not recorded.
Total: Allow approximately 3.5 hours per day, plus some reading time. There will also be a chance to talk informally with other participants on zoom.
Lectures
Monday 8 July 2024. Ellie Mitchell, ‘A Sketch of the Past’; Hyde Park Gate News
Tuesday 9 July. Karina Jakubowicz, Child Jacob in Jacob’s Room (1922)
Wednesday 10 July. Angela Harris, Mothers and Children in To the Lighthouse (1927)
Thursday 11 July. Alison Hennegan, Childhood in The Waves (1931)
Friday 12 July. Trudi Tate, Young Lives in The Years (1937)
Supervisions
After each lecture, you will have a supervision. This is a small tutorial group with 3 or 4 students working closely with a supervisor on the book of the day. This is one of the most rewarding parts of the course.
We cater for people in different time zones by providing recordings of the lectures, if needed, so you can listen the day before. We offer supervisions live at different times of the day, to cater for all time zones.
Talks and Readings
• Ann Kennedy Smith, Woolf and Julian Bell: ‘charming, violent and gifted’
• Angela Harris, Woolf’s Siblings: Vanessa, Thoby and Adrian
• Karina Jakubowicz, reading aloud from Woolf’s writing
• Childhood in Katherine Mansfield’s stories
… and more
Virginia Stephen and her father Leslie Stephen
Virginia and Vanessa Stephen as children
Prices
£580 full price
£540 students and CAMcard holders
£540 members of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
All prices include VAT at 20%.
Reading list
Set reading
• ‘A Sketch of the Past’ (1939), in Woolf, Moments of Being, ed. Jeanne Schulkind (Pimlico)
For Hyde Park Gate News, we will provide selections from the text.
• Jacob’s Room (1922)
• To the Lighthouse (1927)
• The Waves (1931)
• The Years (1937)
For the novels, please get the current Oxford World Classics edition, if possible, so that we can all be on the same page in supervisions. But if that’s not possible, any good edition will be fine.
Optional further reading
Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (biography, 1995)
Susan Sellers, ed., Cambridge Companion to VW (2010)
Susan Sellers, Vanessa and Virginia (novel, 2009)
Frances Spalding, Vanessa Bell (biography)
Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens and Other Short Fiction, ed. Bryony Randall (2022)
Links
• National Portrait Gallery on Vanessa Bell
• Article on exhibition of Vanessa Bell’s art, Guardian, 2017
• Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
• Monk's House, National Trust
• Charleston, National Trust
• Paula Maggio, Blogging Woolf
• Notes on Leonard Woolf
Live online summer course on Woolf’s Women, 2023
Further suggestions of reading will be provided for those attending the course.
If possible, please support independent bookshops in person or online for our courses. Thank you.
This course will be repeated in person in Cambridge 4-9 August 2024. Bookings are open. Link to page.
Terms and conditions
We can’t usually refund course fees if you can’t attend. We might be able to transfer your booking fee to another course. Please email us to discuss. If there is a waiting list and we can resell your place, then we can refund, but this is not very likely. If possible, you might want to take out insurance in case circumstances prevent you from attending. Thank you.
Participants’ comments on the live online summer courses
It was an absolute joy. Really. Day after day. I have learned a lot these past days and I will continue reading Woolf again and again and again . . . although now with a much more critical eye.
The organization was impeccable, the lecturers were all super interesting and Ellie Mitchell was a very patient and most generous and inspiring supervisor!
- Yasmine Geukens, Belgium, 2023
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Just to say many thanks indeed to you, and EVERYONE involved in providing such an interesting, stimulating and enjoyable week on Virginia Woolf. I have had many insights and have happy memories too.
- Sue Dingle, Scotland, 2023
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I have been wanting to do a Literature Cambridge Summer School for a long time. So when it came online I was really thrilled to be able to join and I was not disappointed. All the lectures were excellent . . . truly inspirational and memorable. I enjoyed the supervision sessions and the opportunity to discuss in a smaller group. I loved immersing myself in Woolf for a whole week and I felt I learnt so many new things even though I have been studying Woolf for twenty years. But I guess that is what Virginia Woolf does to you . . . you can’t stop learning about her!
- Irene, England, 2022
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I especially liked the supervision portion of the course. It was a great opportunity to share thoughts on the reading. Often, others in my group made points that I hadn't considered. Alison Hennegan is a wonderful supervisor; I feel fortunate to have been included in her supervision group. Her breadth of knowledge is astonishing.
I also loved the talks on the houses in which Woolf lived. They were all superb.
Online courses are wonderful for those of us who live very far away and may not be able to make the journey to the UK. Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful week that I will always treasure!
- Mitchell Alcrim, US, 2022
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The quality of the lectures, seminars, and additional talks was excellent. I feel very privileged to be able to attend these sessions when I live so far away. The organization of the course and the access to additional material were exceptional.
Trudi, I would like to thank you and your team for the most wonderful experience.
- Jude Alford, Australia, 2022
Live online summer course on Woolf’s Houses, 2022