Woolf 1 (int.)
family
Born in 1882 into a rapidly evolving world.
Family split between "polite society" and curiosity about darker aspects.
Father, Sir Leslie Stephen, encouraged authors like Henry James and Thomas Hardy.
Higher education reserved for men in the family.
Bitter lesson in inequality for Woolf.
Father's death in 1904 marked the beginning of her own life and literary career.
The Bloomsbury Group
Moved to Bloomsbury with sister Vanessa after parents' deaths.
Joined the avant-garde Bloomsbury group.
Included intellectuals, artists, socialists, and students.
Shared contempt for traditional morality, rejection of artistic convention, and disdain for bourgeois sexual codes.
Radical thinkers known for Woolf's stream-of-consciousness prose style, pacifist philosophy of Bertrand Russel, and post-impressionist painting.
Defined social, political, and creative concerns of the midcentury.
Started as a weekly gathering, evolved into intense salon of ideas.
Woolf and Vanessa important members.
Woolf felt accepted and encouraged to contribute.
Group believed in the social function of art.
Encouragement from the group led Woolf to begin writing.