Walking Virginia Woolf’s London: An Investigation in Literary Geography(Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies)

This innovative volume employs theoretical tools from the field of literary geography to explore Virginia Woolf’s writing and the ways in which she constructs her human subjects. It follows the routes of characters from The Voyage, Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and more as they walk around London, demonstrating how Woolf constructs the characters in her stories in a very politically conscious way. As Larsson argues, none of Woolf’s characters are able to walk just anywhere, at any time in history, or at any time of the day. Time, place, gender, and class form the conditions of life that the characters must accept or challenge. Featuring an array of detailed maps, Walking Virginia Woolf’s London: An Investigation in Literary Geography brings a fascinating new perspective to Virginia Woolf’s work. It is essential reading for scholars of modernist literature or geocriticism.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction.- 2 Dreaming of London — The Voyage Out.- 3 A Room of One’s Own behind the Strand — Night and Day.- 4 A Brief Moment in Bloomsbury — Jacob’s Room.- 5 Walking in Upper-Class Westminster — Mrs. Dalloway.- 6 TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS— To the Lighthouse, Orlando,

About the Author :
Lisbeth Larsson has been Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Gothenburg since 2000. Her major publications are in the fields of popular culture, feminism and biography. She edited and contributed to The History of Nordic Women’s Literature. At present she heads the project Swedish Women Online.

Review :
“A scholarly volume offering thought-provoking readings of Woolf’s novels in pleasantly readable prose, concentrating on characters’ walks through the capital. … readers looking specifically for geocritically inflected criticism of Woolf’s fictional London wanderings are likely to be well satisfied with what they find, as will most general readers, too. … Larson’s readable study shows that a geocritical approach opens up useful, worthwhile and interesting readings of Woolf’s comments on class and sex and place.” (Mary Ellen Foley, Virginia Woolf Bulletin, Issue 60, January, 2019) “A meticulous and comprehensive addition to stud­ies of Woolf’s walking, Lisbeth Larsson’s book sets out to trace … an inductive survey of the actual walks taken by various characters which uses the tools of literary geography to draw insightful conclusions about Woolf’s political demarcations of London and her critiques of class, patriarchy, and colonialism.” (Elisa Kay Sparks, Woolf Studies Annual, Vol. 25, 2019)