‘MANY CROWNS OF VIOLETS’—CLASSICAL RECEPTION AND QUEERNESS IN READINGS OF VIRGINIA WOOLF
Supervised by Prof. Ingo Gildenhard, School of Classics, College of Cambridge
Introduction
All through Western literary historical past, writers have usually used the classics to shepherd innuendo into their work. As a queer particular person myself, I’m significantly curious about the usage of classical reception—the portrayal, illustration, and use of the traditional world—in queer and homoerotic writings. Queerness has been taboo for a lot of Western historical past and even elements of in the present day, and for a lot of queer authors of the previous, the one protected and reasonably ‘acceptable’ manner of expressing such themes was by way of Classics, an idealised but oftentimes undeniably homoerotic subject of research. For instance, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf use figures from classical mythology to allude to the queerness of characters in The Image of Dorian Grey and Orlando, and Forster’s Maurice straight hyperlinks the classical with the gay by having the titular character realise his sexuality after studying Plato’s Symposium and referring to homosexuality as ‘the unspeakable vice of the Greeks’.
Whereas curiosity in classical reception has grown in recent times, research in relation to queer works is relatively current addition to the sphere and tends to gear in direction of male homosexuality. Nonetheless, queer girls have additionally discovered illustration within the Classics, the obvious instance being the phrases ‘sapphic’ and ‘lesbian’ being derived from Sappho of Lesbos, an influential Greek poet who wrote about love for different girls. Additional research of Classics and feminine queerness by way of literature would give a better voice to a traditionally marginalised group of individuals, probably even altering perceptions of queerness and Classical custom in the present day. Virginia Woolf particularly supplies an fascinating case research as she herself learn Classics at King’s Faculty London, lived in a time when queerness was not socially acceptable, and wrote about feminine queerness with lasting impression. This mission subsequently goals to contribute to the filling of the hole between female and male queer illustration through Classics by answering the next query—how has classical reception contributed to queer readings of Virginia Woolf?
Venture Objectives
I purpose to take an interdisciplinary look into Classics, comparative literature, sociology, and queer concept as a way to perceive the affect of classical reception within the queerness of Woolf’s writing. I hope to check how her personal classical schooling formed the best way she portrays queerness in her work and the impression of her work on later generations with Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (1998) and Shelby Wynn Schwartz’s After Sappho (2022), which each handle queer and classical themes.
Methodology and Timeline
Because the mission focuses on the extra subjective literary and societal research of illustration, I plan on the vast majority of the work being based mostly in literary and discourse evaluation. By means of literature assessment, I hope to consolidate a bunch of queer figures and symbolism from Classics in addition to a collection of Woolf’s most notable (and maybe ‘queerest’) works. Then, I plan on cross-referencing and analysing them with one another. Afterwards, I’ll distinction the portrayals of queerness in Woolf towards Cunningham and Schwartz to match any variation in classical allusion.
I suggest the present timeline for the six weeks:
- Week One: full full literature assessment and evaluation of classical textual content
- Week Two: evaluation of classical textual content
- Week Three: start evaluation of Woolf, accounting for cross-referencing time
- Week 4: end evaluation of Woolf, start evaluation of Cunningham and Schwartz
- Week 5: end evaluation of Cunningham and Schwartz, start analysis paper
- Week Six: develop a analysis paper detailing outcomes and conclusions, permitting for time to finish any straggling analysis work
I can be engaged on a preliminary draft of the analysis paper all through the six weeks in order to minimise the quantity of last-minute writing and to permit for catch-up time within the final two weeks.
Supposed Outcomes
I imagine that this analysis would assist in understanding the historic affect of Classics in queer feminine illustration. This work would additionally contribute to deeper information of the legacies of Classics and of Virginia Woolf, collectively and individually, and I wish to utilise this in connecting queer communities across the English-speaking world.
