The Bloomsbury Group consisted of a group of friends--writers, visual artists, and social and political activists--who were integral to creating modernism in various forms at the beginning of the 20th century. The name is derived from the London neighborhood (near Russell Square and the University of London) where several members moved as young adults, hoping to live a life free of social and intellectual restrictions. To a large extent, they succeeded. Over the course of their decades-long association, the group challenged literary, artistic, and social and political conventions. In this course we will read literary works (novels, short stories, essays, poems, biographies) by Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and T. S. Eliot, alongside works by the postimpressionist visual artists and art theorists of the group (Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Duncan Grant). Art and design by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and the Omega Workshop will be viewed in class. |