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Housekeeping:

• Exam Two next week

 

Agenda:

Housekeeping: Agenda: Empire Writes Back End of Empire Group Work: Tweeting Clarissa D Discussion Questions: Mrs. Dalloway and Social Media Group Project: Finding Mrs. Dalloway in Fin de Siecle Art  Fin de Siecle in the Visual Arts Discussion Questions: Isolation in Urbane Middle-Class Life Discussion Questions: Social Critique and Religious Reference Discussion Questions: Domestic Women Discussion Questions: Perspective at the End of an Era Discussion Questions: Visualizing the End of An Era Discussion Questions: Death in Fin de Siecle Art Drama of Daily Life Discussion Question:

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Empire Writes Back

Let's go back a review a little bit more from last week before we move on to Mrs. Dalloway.

 

 

End of Empire

 

Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway (1925) challenges our understanding of the novel and the Victorian world view. 

 

Mrs. Dalloway is a Modernist anticipation of our currant fascination with social media. Clarissa Dalloway Tweets and Instagrams her way through the day as she prepares for a party, beginning with the flowers she picks up for the evening. 

 

Woolf situates discussions of madness and death in mundane life after the Great War (and Influenza Pandemic). She recognizes the traumatic stress experienced by soldiers and civilians alike.

 

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Group Work: Tweeting Clarissa D

Create three Tweets and three Instagrams for the first half of the novel and post them here (or in the Comment Box below).

 

"Mending my dress for the party tonight. #Turntup #Roaring20s"

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Discussion Questions: Mrs. Dalloway and Social Media

1. Summarize the first half of the novel. Who have we met? What's happened? 
2. Let's think about this novel in the context of social media:
1. Why do we use social media?
1. What does it do for us?
3. Why does Woolf write in this style?
1. What commentary is she making about post-Great War life?

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Group Project: Finding Mrs. Dalloway in Fin de Siecle Art 

We're going to kick off class today by breaking into groups and finding Clarissa Dalloway (or... any of the characters from Mrs. Dalloway) in the Fin de Siecle art below OR any Fin de Siecle art (for example, the Royal Museum in Belgium is dedicated to this artistic era: http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/en/museums/musee-fin-de-siecle-museum )

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Fin de Siecle in the Visual Arts

The 1890s are often identified as the fin de sicle era: the end of an era of empire.

 

Georges Seurat. "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." 1884-1886. Oil on canvas and wood.

 

Discussion Questions: Isolation in Urbane Middle-Class Life

• How does this painting illustrate them theme of isolation within a crowd?
• How does the style model that isolation?
• Does this image resonate with Mrs. Dalloway? 

 

James Ensor. "The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889." (1888). Oil on canvas. 

 

Discussion Questions: Social Critique and Religious Reference

• How does this painting deal with sociopolitical issues at the end of the nineteenth century?
• How is religion worked into this commentary?
• How does this resemble "An Outpost of Progress"? 

 

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Mary Cassatt. "Five O'Clock Tea" (ca 1880). Oil on canvas.

 

Mary Cassatt. "Afternoon Tea Party." (1891). Color drypoint and aquatint on paper.

 

Discussion Questions: Domestic Women

• How do these pictures of women taking tea resemble each other?
• How are they different?
• How do these images of mundane domestic life resemble Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

 

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Berthe Morisot. "The Psyche" (1876)

 

Edouard Manet. "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere" (1882). Oil on canvas.

 

Vincent Van Gogh. "The Artist's Bedroom in Arles." (1888) Oil on canvas.

 

Discussion Questions: Perspective at the End of an Era

• How do these paintings challenge traditional perceptions of space (and time?)?
• How does this visual manipulation of perspective resemble Woolf's treatment of perspective in Mrs. Dalloway. 

 

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John Everett Millais. "Ophillia" (1851)

Millais's painting was made at the height of the Victorian era.

 

Odilon Redon. "Ophilia Among the Flowers." 1905. Pastel.

 

Discussion Questions: Visualizing the End of An Era

• How does Redon's fin de siecle painting resemble Millias' painting?

 

Odilon Redon. "Death: My Irony Exceeds All Others." 1889. Lithograph.

 

Discussion Questions: Death in Fin de Siecle Art

• How does this symbolist painting treat the theme of death?
• How does this relate to the treatment of death in Mrs. Dalloway?
• How is the irony of death an integral part of the fin de siecle era? 
• How does this relate to the belief in progress that characterized the Victorian Era?

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Drama of Daily Life

 

Virginia Woolf applies Aristotle's Classical Unities to her portrayal of daily life after the Great War. 

 

Aristotle's Unities: 

• ACTION
• TIME
• PLACE 

 

Discussion Question:

 

• How are these unities illustrated in the novel?
• What is the purpose of applying Classical unities to daily life in London?
• Take a few minutes and discuss how you would dramatize this novel?
• What actors would you use?
• Describe the scene and set.
• Describe the costumes. 

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