LIT 221T Bloomsbury Britain: Art, Craft, Culture
The primary thematic focus of this course is the Bloomsbury Group, a loose network of writers, artists, and intellectuals (including Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, and Roger Fry) who gathered in the squares of the Bloomsbury area of London during the first decades of the twentieth century. The course considers the exciting and creative possibilities of living in this period of dramatic social and cultural change. It pays particular attention to the possibilities for artistic creation at a time when art was not ethereal but rather a concrete and vibrant part of everyday life. Students will visit a variety of locations associated with the Bloomsbury Group: the homes that became laboratories for artistic production; public spaces of popular, commercial, and high art such as cinemas, galleries, and bookshops; as well as muse-ums and archives. In addition to London, the travel will take students to other locations in southern England, including Brighton, Lewes, and Charleston.