Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy

by Holly Henry

Overview

Holly Henry investigates how advances in astronomy in the early twentieth century influenced Woolf's literature and aesthetics and the work of such modernist British writers as Vita Sackville-West, H.G. Wells, and T.S. Eliot. In re-evaluating the cultural context out of which Modernism emerged, Henry contends that Woolf formulated a global vision that helped shape her fiction and her pacifist politics through her fascination with astronomy. Henry's study includes revealing examinations of unpublished scientific and literary archival material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521119870
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/17/2009
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Holly Henry is Assistant Professor of English at the California State University, San Bernardino. Her research has appeared in publications in both the humanities and the sciences including contributions to Virginia Woolf in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction edited by Pamela Gaughie (2000) and Astronomy & Geophysics: The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; Introduction: formulating a global aesthetic; 1. Stars and nebulae in popular culture; 2. From Edwin Hubble's telescope to Virginia Woolf's 'searchlight'; 3. 'Solid objects in a solid universe': the globe and Woolf's deployment of multiple perspectives; 4. 'Talk about the riddle of the universe': traversing the discourses of science and art in The Waves; 5. From galactic expanses to earth: Woolf and Stapledon envision new worlds; 6. Woolf's global vision: Three Guineas and the politics of science; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Readers of Henry's book will take away an enhanced understanding of how Woolf's aesthetic practice became imbricated with the scientific discourse of her day...Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science valuably demonstrates Woolf's creative response to an evolving picture of a peripheral and fragile earth." English Literature in Transition 1880-1920

"Henry's book offers a useful new lens through which to view Woolf's narrative experiments. More than that, it is a fascinating compendium of details about early 20th century popular interest in astronomy and how that interest changed how people - and modern writers - saw themselves in relation to the universe." Woolf Studies Annual

"Henry's book is lucid, informative, and meticulously well researched. Essential." Choice

From the Publisher