nf0062: if you have been looking at the [0.9] the web site newsgroup [0.3] you 
would have realized that last week's lecture had been changed round because 
namex [0.4] namex had to be [0.2] somewhere else [0.2] today and so i agreed to 
swap with him [0.7] which was er [0.2] just as well given that i went down with 
the flu [0.5] er [0.4] so [0.3] those of you who read the newsgroup [0.3] will 
have known that if you didn't there's a good reason for [0.3] keeping up with 
the newsgroup because bits of information like that [0.5] do get relayed [0.4] 
er [0.5] and [0.4] i've not put on the handout [0.5] details of the books [0.6] 
i'm referring to but [0.3] they are there [0.2] on the newsgroup [0.4] so again 
another incentive to go and use it [0.6] it saves my time i only have to do it 
once and send it rather than [0.3] start f-, copying more [0.2] paper [0.8] 
okay er [0.7] so i'm going to be lecturing on Orlando [1.1] Orlando A Biography 
today [0.8] and [0.3] [0.7] i'm going to concentrate on three main aspects 
today [0.8] the biographical aspect [0.6] the whole issue of parody [0.7] and 
issues about [0.3] er [0.6] relationship to history [0.8] and in 
fact i had hoped to do more than that and i think i'm not going to have time to 
do more than that in an hour [0.4] so i'm going to as it were [0.2] hold over 
part of my agenda till next term [0.3] when i lecture on modernism and gender 
[0.6] and i shall talk in more detail next term [0.4] about the issues around 
Orlando's sex change [0.4] and issues of [0.4] er identity [0.2] sexual 
identity [0.4] and the whole issue of the self whatever that is [0.5] so today 
is going to be as it were [0.2] part one of my approaches [0.3] to Orlando [1.
2] and i'm going to start with the biographical [1.1] whatever that means er [0.
9] Virginia Woolf was born in eighteen-eighty-two [0.7] the third of four 
children from the marriage of Leslie and Julia Stephen [1.0] both parents had 
been married previously [0.6] so the household [0.5] also included two elder 
half-brothers [0.6] George and Gerald Duckworth [0.6] and two half-sisters 
Stella Duckworth [0.5] and Leslie Stephen's daughter by his first marriage [0.
4] called Laura [0.5] and if you're interested in biography behind [0.4] that 
plain statement there's an awful lot of [0.4] possibly 
relevant [0.3] information [0.8] which i won't go into now but i would 
recommend Hermione Lee's biography [0.6] of Virginia Woolf [0.3] simply called 
Virginia Woolf [0.4] which came out last year to great critical acclaim [1.2] 
now as children er the family lived in Hyde Park Gate [0.5] which is a narrow 
cul-de-sac off Kensington Road [0.5] and spent the summers at Talland House [0.
3] just outside Saint Ives in Cornwall [0.5] and if you've read To the 
Lighthouse you'll know that that [0.4] is a kind of er [0.7] r-, recall a 
memoir of [0.3] of Talland House in fictional form [1.4] er Virginia Woolf's 
mother died in eighteen-ninety-five when [0.5] well she was then Virginia 
Stephen when Virginia Stephen was thirteen [1.1] and just between childhood and 
adolescence [0.5] in her memoirs she describes it thus [1.7] the years between 
childhood and maturity are so complex [0.6] my mother's death fell into the 
very middle of that amorphous time [0.6] that made it much more broken [0.8] 
the whole thing [0.3] was strained [1.1] her father [0.2] Leslie Stephen [0.2] 
was the first editor of The Dictionary of 
National Biography [0.4] which is mentioned in Orlando [0.8] er [0.2] and 
Hermione Lee explains what [0.5] it involved for him [1.4] she says [0.3] 
Leslie may have been anxious for Julia's health [0.6] but he was exhausting her 
the most [1.0] in the year of Virginia's birth [0.4] he was labouring with a 
different kind of gestation [0.9] the Cornhill Magazine was flagging and the 
publisher George Smith suggested [0.3] that Leslie give up the editorship in 
order to embark on The Dictionary of National Biography [1.1] from then on [0.
2] for nine years [0.4] he committed himself to the massive undertaking [0.4] 
of marshalling a team of [0.4] six-hundred-and-fifty-three contributors [0.5] 
editing the articles of the first twenty-six volumes [0.4] writing three-
hundred-and-seventy-eight entries himself [0.6] endlessly proof correcting not 
his forte [1.2] and corresponding [1.3] by the end there would be sixty-three 
volumes [0.3] of twenty-nine-thousand-one-hundred-and-twenty lines [0.6] a 
monument to Victorian industry [0.6] a tomb for Leslie Stephen's health [1.0] 
the first volume came out in 
eighteen-eighty-five [0.4] already it seems to have been perceived by the 
children as a blight [0.7] Toby [0.2] at five [0.8] bought Leslie a [0.6] 
contradictionary [0.4] box [0.5] which [0.3] Toby said was [0.3] full of 
rubbish [0.3] [sniff] [0.6] so i start with these biographical details [0.5] 
because one could argue [0.6] that all of Virginia Woolf's writing is based on 
her autobiography [0.7] or what she describes as life [0.3] writing [0.5] again 
as Hermione Lee says [0.6] her life story enters and shapes [0.5] her novels [0.
2] and her essays [0.4] she returns again and again [0.4] to her family [0.4] 
her parents her sister [0.3] the death of her mother the death [0.2] of her 
brother [0.6] [sniff] [0.9] now [0.3] in the case of Orlando [0.4] A Biography 
[0.7] the biography [0.5] is not [0.5] of Virginia Woolf [0.8] but of Vita 
Sackville-West [0.9] with whom Virginia Woolf had what one could describe as an 
affair [0.7] er [0.4] in the twenties [1.3] they first met at the end of 
nineteen-twenty-two [0.7] introduced by Virginia's brother-in-law Clive Bell [1.
5] Vita was married to Harold Nicolson [0.5] in a 
marriage [0.2] which permitted them both [0.3] to continue homosexual affairs 
and liaisons [1.0] the affair with Virginia Woolf [0.4] lasted through most of 
the nineteen-twenties [0.3] and included their going on holiday to France 
together towards the end of that time [1.0] Orlando was written [0.5] towards 
the end of the affair [0.9] and can be seen as Virginia's way [0.4] of [0.2] 
saying farewell [0.8] and taking possession of her own agendas again [1.3] it's 
[0.2] based on Vita Sackville-West [0.6] but there are many elements in the 
novel [1.0] which [0.6] derive from Virginia Woolf rather than Sackville-West 
for example feminism [1.1] the preoccupation with the impossibility of writing 
history [0.7] and writing biography [0.9] and the whole way in which the 
concept of a stable [0.4] unified self is dissolved [0.4] in the text [2.0] on 
the other hand there's clearly a fascination [0.4] with an aristocratic family 
whose lineage stretched back to Elizabethan times [0.9] er [0.3] and with the 
whole notion of the ancestral family home [1.2] and arguably [0.6] well i'm not 
quite sure how [0.2] strongly i'd want to argue the case [0.3] there's also [0.
3] a critique [0.3] of some of the values [0.3] which the English aristocracy 
subscribe to [1.7] so [1.4] i want to approach the text first of all [0.4] thr-,
through this notion of its being [0.3] a biography and it's there in the 
subtitle of the novel [0.6] er and in fact it caused some confusion when it was 
first published because it wasn't put in [0.3] kind of the fiction section in 
bookshops but in the biography [0.3] section [0.7] er [0.4] so [0.5] it's a 
biography [0.4] a life writing [1.9] and [0.2] remember [0.5] that [0.2] Vita's 
name [0.2] in Latin [1.1] means life [1.0] er [0.5] and of course it's still 
present in words like [0.3] vital [0.4] vitality [0.6] er [0.4] and even if you 
don't know Latin you may know the Latin tag [0.5] er [sniff] [0.4] ars longa 
vita brevis [1.4] yes long the art short the life the life is long the art i-, 
[0.3] the sorry the [0.4] the art is long the life is short [0.3] i think comes 
from Horace [0.6] er [0.3] so part of Virginia Woolf's [0.4] playfulness in 
this text [0.5] is that we have a kind of [0.4] a variation 
on this theme of ars longa vita brevis we have ars longa [0.6] vita longa as 
well to kind of correspond to it [0.7] er [0.7] i'm going to quote from Rachel 
Bowlby's introduction [0.5] to Orlando which some of you might have in your 
edition but [0.3] not sure that everybody does [0.6] s-, [0.5] since she gives 
a clear and succinct account of [0.2] Vita [1.3] and again you'll see on the 
newsgroup that you can also go to Feminist Destinations [0.4] where that essay 
is reprinted [0.6] er [sniff] [1.2] so Bowlby says Vita was the latest [0.3] in 
a line of the noble Sackvilles [0.4] whose history she had lovingly written a 
few years before Orlando [0.4] in [0.4] Knole and the Sackvilles [0.4] nineteen-
twenty-two [0.7] on which Woolf drew extensively for her background to the 
novel [1.6] she took upon herself the conserving role of historian [0.5] and 
prided herself on the continuity [0.5] and illustriousness of her ancestry [0.
9] since the sixteenth century [0.5] when one of them was granted the estate by 
Queen Elizabeth the First [0.5] the Sackvilles had consistently been [0.2] men 
of 
national importance [0.5] they made up a long run of statesmen [0.4] 
ambassadors and minor men of letters [0.9] and it is not difficult to imagine 
how Vita herself the wife of a twentieth century ambassador [0.4] Harold 
Nicolson [0.6] and a prolific seeker after literary fame [0.5] should have 
found [0.9] both points of correspondence in this history [0.4] and [0.5] for 
the two must be inseparable [0.6] been prompted [0.5] in the choices of her own 
life by the models provided [0.4] by her extraordinary array of forebears [1.4] 
so [0.6] many of the incidents in the plot of Orlando [0.5] are based on the 
history of the Sackville family [0.8] which had been written by Vita [0.6] and 
which arguably influenced her in her own life choices [1.2] and for example the 
whole incident o-, of [0.5] er the [0.6] living with the gypsies [0.4] Vita 
Sackwille-Welf [0.2] w-, er West's grandmother [0.3] was a quite famous [0.2] 
Spanish [0.2] gypsy dancer [0.6] er [sniff] [0.9] so [0.3] Vita herself in her 
own life dr-, [0.2] kind of lived out a lot of different roles and somehow 
managed to kind of keep them all [0.3] kind 
of going at once [1.8] however [1.3] having given you that information i would 
also say [0.6] Orlando A Biography [0.3] is clearly not [0.4] a biography of 
Vita Sackville-West [0.5] it's rather a fantastical jeu d'esprit [1.1] yet [0.
4] it plays with the issues which arise from life writing [0.6] including the 
central issue which is [0.8] can [0.2] anyone ever know for sure the truth of 
someone else's life [1.0] especially if that subject is remote [0.2] in time [0.
7] is it possible to ever really know somebody [0.8] [sniff] [1.0] now Rachel 
Bowlby suggests [0.3] that there are two related aspects [0.4] in the 
publication [0.4] and in the reception of biographies [0.5] and she [0.4] terms 
them this way [0.5] the exemplary-didactic [0.4] story for our times [0.7] and 
the projective [0.5] identifying oneself as biographer or a reader [0.3] with 
another's story [1.6] now if you think of those two terms [1.6] i think neither 
of them allow for impartiality [0.6] and objectivity [0.3] either you're 
telling it with a kind of moral purpose [0.2] i'm telling you this story 
because you can apply it to our times now [0.4] or 
you're kind of [0.2] vicariously [0.4] kind of living out [0.5] you know almost 
a fantasy self [0.6] er [sniff] [1.1] so [0.8] i think what [0.7] er Bowlby 
does is to give us definitions [0.4] of contemporary trends in biography 
writing [1.0] now when Leslie Stephen edited [0.3] The Dictionary of National 
Biography [0.6] he was engaged in a project [0.6] which was doubtless seen as 
[0.3] impartial [0.6] and objective [0.3] a kind of [0.2] authoritative [0.2] 
compilation [1.5] although the editorial choices involved in deciding who 
should be included in this monument [0.3] to late Victorian culture [0.5] er [0.
3] must have [0.7] included a set of implicit [0.3] value judgements [0.4] er 
[0.3] but i suspect that they weren't consciously applied [1.7] so Virginia 
Woolf [0.6] née Stephen of course [0.4] would go on to question [0.6] many of 
these value judgements [0.4] in her own writings [0.6] and in particular [0.5] 
er value judgements which centre around issues of [0.4] gender [0.3] and empire 
[0.5] things which er [0.2] the Victorian establishment [0.4] took [0.2] for 
granted but which she as being on the margins of that society [0.4] a kind of 
an outside insider [0.6] er [0.5] was 
able to kind of question [0.2] and and and er [0.5] question the the sense of 
them really [1.0] [0.7] so and i i would argue that the [0.2] the playfulness 
[0.5] of Orlando [1.0] is not merely frivolous [0.9] er [0.4] but it's a way of 
[0.3] questioning assumptions about sensitive issues [0.6] especially around 
gender and sexuality [0.6] and around [0.3] politics and power [1.0] and 
questioning [0.5] the assumptions when you put those two things together gender 
[0.3] and politics [0.5] you know who has the power [0.9] well it's usually not 
the men [0.5] i mean to say it's usually not the women it's usually men in vic-,
in Virginia Woolf's society [0.6] er and that's again something i want to talk 
about more next term [1.5] and [1.2] i think Orlando is a way of questioning [0.
5] the assumptions [0.2] absolutely of her father's generation [0.4] but indeed 
also of some of her contemporaries and [0.6] she had contemporaries who were 
also writing [0.4] er biographies for example eminent Victorians [0.3] er [0.7] 
and [0.5] again it's a way of her questioning their assumptions [0.3] without 
causing too 
much offence [0.5] or bringing the weight of the establishment down on her [0.
5] er [0.4] and remember in the year that she publishes [0.8] Orlando [0.6] er 
Radclyffe Hall is actually being [0.3] prosecuted [0.5] for obscenity [0.8] 
because of the publication of her novel [0.4] The Well of Loneliness [0.2] 
which also talks about lesbianism [0.4] er but does this in a more realist way 
[0.5] er and consequently i mean Radclyffe Hall [0.3] as it were didn't get 
away with it [1.9] okay so i think that brings me to my first [0.7] extract [1.
1] er [0.6] which i [0.6] put on the sheet [0.7] partly 'cause you may not have 
your book with you and partly because you're probably all working from 
different texts [0.5] er it's [0.2] as you see from the start of chapter two [1.
6] and it's one of a number of places in the text [0.3] where the biographer 
calls attention to himself [1.7] so chapter two begins [0.4] [sniff] [1.2] the 
biographer [0.9] is now faced [0.5] with a difficulty [1.0] which it is better 
perhaps to confess than to gloss over [1.3] up to this point in telling the 
story of Orlando's life [0.4] documents both private and historical [0.3] have 
made it possible [0.3] 
to fulfil the first duty of a biographer [0.7] which is to plod without looking 
to right or left [0.3] in the indelible footprints of truth [1.1] unenticed by 
flowers [0.3] regardless of shade [0.6] on and on methodically [0.3] till we 
fall [0.2] plump into the grave [0.3] and write finis on the tombstone above 
our heads [1.4] but now we come to an episode [0.2] which lies right across our 
path [0.2] so there is no ignoring it [0.9] yet it is [0.2] dark [0.3] 
mysterious and undocumented [0.7] so that there is [0.3] no explaining it [0.9] 
volumes might be written in interpretation of it [0.4] whole religious systems 
be founded upon the signification of it [0.9] our simple duty [0.3] is to state 
the facts as far as they are known [0.3] and so let the reader make of them [0.
2] what he may [0.6] sorry [0.2] put that back on if i can [2.3] right [1.4] 
[sniff] [1.9] shades of Dickens and [0.3] er facts [0.8] in there i think [0.7] 
so [0.3] to state the obvious [0.6] if anything is obvious [0.3] in this novel 
[1.6] Virginia Woolf [0.5] the author [0.6] is not [0.8] the biographer in the 
text [0.5] who 
refers to himself [0.4] impersonally [0.4] er [0.3] the biographer is now faced 
with he doesn't say i am now faced with [0.4] or he adopts the first person 
plural pronoun [0.5] er our simple duty is [0.4] that kind of thing [0.6] er [1.
4] which i think is a habit of scholarly prose which some of us still continue 
[0.6] er [1.8] i imagine this is because [0.5] this suggests that all 
individual subjectivity [0.4] has been edited out [0.6] er and that this man of 
letters [0.3] is drawing on and purveying [0.3] a more general truth [0.6] he's 
a spokesman for the truth [0.3] for the facts [0.8] er [0.3] and that this is 
not just an idiosyncratic take on his subject [0.6] so that kind of [0.4] our 
duty is the biographer is now faced with [0.4] er conveys [0.3] weight [0.3] 
and authority [0.8] and suggests that the value judgements and the 
discriminations made by the biog-, biographer [0.5] are pretty much infallible 
[0.6] er [0.3] because they're part of a wider set of assumptions [0.3] that 
all right thinking men adhere to [0.9] er [1.0] Woolf the author though [0.9] 
does just enough for the biographer to appear [0.3] somewhat fussy [0.4] and 
narrow minded [1.1] in his 
preoccupation with facts and [0.3] the indelible footprints [0.4] of truth [0.
8] he becomes a somewhat [0.2] ridiculous absurd character [2.1] i think in 
effect she's [0.7] parodying the conventional biographer of late Victorian 
times [0.8] which is to say [0.4] she is parodying and critiquing [0.3] her 
father's life's work [1.8] so [1.3] much of this parody is an attack of the man 
of letters who believes in [0.4] the indelible footprints of truth [0.7] and 
defines these as [0.4] having to tread quite a narrow path [0.8] er [0.6] and 
th-, i think [0.2] what you might want to do is [0.3] to examine for yourselves 
the various points in the text [0.6] where the biographer calls attention to 
himself and i'm saying himself [0.6] er [0.6] and calls attention to his 
dilemmas [0.7] er [1.4] and then c-, try and consider him as er [0.2] as a 
character [0.8] in this novel [1.0] er [1.3] and think about the distance 
between the point of view [0.2] of this character [0.8] er [0.5] and the point 
of view of Virginia Woolf [0.2] as author [0.3] and as agent controlling the 
discourse overall [0.9] and i would argue that she is saying something [0.3] 
radically different [0.4] from what the 
biographer says [0.7] and that the gap between them at times is a great gulf [0.
7] er [0.6] i might say a little bit more about how she does that [0.2] later 
on [0.2] [sniff] [2.2] okay [0.8] so that's talking about [0.6] biography and 
[0.2] the role of the biographer as a [0.2] perhaps a major character in the 
novel [1.7] i want now just to think a little bit about [0.4] parody [1.4] er 
[0.4] and consider other types of parody in the novel apart from this main one 
of of the biographer [1.0] and not just dwelling on Virginia [0.5] Woolf [0.4] 
née Stephen [0.4] as er an undutiful daughter [0.8] er [1.3] just sort of 
broadening it out a bit [1.4] now i think there's a further parody of the 
biographical conventions [0.8] through the illustrations [0.5] which are 
included in the text [0.4] and again just to remind you i've [0.3] put a couple 
of those [0.5] on the sheet here [1.6] and again i'm going to read from 
Hermione Lee [0.6] who i do think is Virginia Woolf's perfect [0.4] biographer 
and i'm trying to say that [0.2] with absolute seriousness i really do 
recommend [0.5] you read her work [1.7] so [0.3] Hermione Lee says [0.8] from 
the outset [1.5] Virginia envisaged 
Orlando [0.9] as an illustrated book [0.5] the pictures with an index and 
acknowledgements were part of the paraphernalia of the fake biography [1.2] 
there were to be portraits of Sackville ancestors [0.6] for Orlando as a young 
man [1.1] photographs of Vita [0.6] for Orlando as a woman [1.1] and a portrait 
of Orlando's lost love [0.3] the Russian princess Sasha [0.8] this would be 
Angelica [0.2] now a ravishing nine year old [1.5] Virginia and Vita went 
together to Knole [0.3] to choose Sackville [0.2] ancestors [1.0] Virginia made 
Vita pose [0.3] as a voluptuous Lely for the photographer Lenare [0.9] and then 
we get in parentheses what Vita thought about it she says [0.8] i was miserable 
[0.4] draped [0.2] in an inadequate bit of pink satin [0.3] with all my clothes 
slipping off [0.6] but V was delighted and kept [0.2] diving under the black 
cloth of the camera to peek at the effect [1.4] then the Hermione Lee goes on 
[0.9] Vanessa and Duncan then decided to join in [1.2] and Vita [0.4] even more 
miserable and feeling like
quote an unfortunate victim [0.3] end quote [0.4] was made to sit inside a huge 
frame [0.4] while they took endless photographs [0.9] and Virginia sat reading 
and commenting [0.4] on all the obituary notices [0.2] in that day's Times [0.
6] and made them all giggle [1.4] Vita was indeed [0.3] being framed [0.4] 
[sniff] [1.8] so if one considers [0.3] the portraits [0.5] and photographs [0.
2] for a moment and i don't know if you did consider them whilst reading the [0.
2] the novel [1.0] er [0.6] i think the interesting thing apart from the fact 
that they often are the paraphernalia of biographies [0.6] er [0.9] is that 
photographic theory [0.6] might tell us that [0.5] the camera never lies [0.8] 
er that the fascinating fact [0.3] about the photographic image [0.5] is that 
it [0.2] is always literal [0.9] it is never figurative [0.6] er [0.2] that is 
it can never [0.3] function as a metaphor [0.9] because it is a literal record 
of its subject [0.6] and i have to say in in in those remarks i am very 
indebted to to Barthes who i [0.5] er whose er work on on photography i think 
is great i don't actually [0.5] can't remember what the English title is it's 
La 
Chambre Claire [0.2] in French [0.3] the er [0.8] light chamber would be a 
exact translation [0.5] er [sniff] [1.8] so [2.4] if we are interested in [0.3] 
indelible truth [0.9] the light chamber where patterns of light are registered 
on light sensitive film [0.5] is about the closest we can get to recording [0.
5] the actuality [0.8] of one particular moment in time [1.7] yet after that 
image has been captured and printed [0.4] or even during the process of 
development itself [0.6] it is vulnerable to manipulation [1.0] so the lively 
Vita felt [0.3] miserable [0.4] trapped and framed [0.6] by the process of 
being the photographic model [0.9] and [0.5] i think it's significant that 
Virginia felt the need [0.5] to repeatedly gaze at her [0.4] through the camera 
lens [0.5] er while also reading [0.2] obituaries [0.7] which after all [0.3] 
are if you want the ultimate form of biography [0.6] the life written [0.4] 
just after death or often prepared at the point of [0.3] death for publication 
in the Times the next day [0.5] so it's a kind of death writing [0.3] if you 
want [0.8] er [1.1] so [0.3] even if [0.9] the camera [1.0] and the 
photographic image is literal [0.6] and true [1.1] and true to its subject [0.
6] the model [0.6] is manipulated as Vita was [0.3] and in her case she's 
manipulated [0.5] to dress up in skimpy clothes [0.3] to present a different 
version of herself [0.7] er [0.5] and i've put a couple of the [0.3] the 
photographs of her on the sheet [0.4] where i think she's very much being made 
to [0.3] dress up [0.7] you know she's she's dressing up to play a part [0.7] 
er [sniff] [0.7] and of course she is then further [0.7] fictionalized by the 
context [0.2] within which the photograph is placed in the text [1.0] the 
images of Vita Sackville-West in Orlando A Biography [0.4] become [0.9] 
fictionalized as images of this [0.2] totally fantastic subject [0.7] er or 
should that be [0.3] fantasized [0.3] by Virginia Woolf [0.5] as images of her 
[0.3] fictionalized fictional subject [0.6] er [0.6] either way the indelible 
[0.7] print of truth [0.7] is now through Virginia Woolf's playfulness and 
manipulations [0.6] er [0.5] a very kind of slippery concept [0.5] er [0.5] 
it's it's an image this [0.4] footprint of truth [0.5] whose meaning i think 
keeps slipping between 
different levels of signification [0.7] er [0.4] so is this just an elaborate 
joke [0.5] the butt of the humour being [0.4] Virginia Woolf's father [0.7] er 
[0.6] so an obituary to the late Victorian man of letters and his culture [1.1] 
is it a homage to Vita it was described by s-, by some people at the time as [0.
3] the longest love letter in the English language [1.9] er [1.1] is it a very 
[0.4] ambiguous flirtation with the English aristocracy [0.5] by [0.4] an 
avowedly socialist and feminist writer [0.7] er [0.5] i think the parodying of 
biographical conventions [0.4] opens up all of these possibilities [0.5] er in 
the reading of the text and of course it's that playfulness which allows [0.4] 
Virginia Woolf to do all those things [1.7] how am i doing for time [0.5] er [3.
6] the [1.8] the second [0.2] of my [0.8] er [0.3] extracts excuse me i'm my 
voice is going [2.7] [sniff] [0.7] the second of my extracts is from the start 
of chapter five [1.1] and [0.5] beneath it i have put [0.6] probably [0.4] 
totally illegible [0.2] i apologize for that but just to draw it to your 
attention [1.3] the first 
chapter of Charles Dickens' Bleak House [1.0] if you remember chapter five [0.
6] is the point when we've just got into the nineteenth century [1.6] so [0.8] 
what i want to suggest [0.9] is [2.3] that [0.2] throughout Orlando [0.9] 
Virginia Woolf [0.5] parodies [0.5] the style the literary style of the [0.3] 
historical period she's talking about [0.7] so that i-, [0.2] in chapter five 
when we get into the nineteenth century [0.4] she quite self-consciously 
deliberately [0.4] parodies [0.2] the prose of Dickens [1.0] [cough] i don't 
know if i've got time just to read you [1.0] a little of that [3.4] the great 
cloud which hung not only [0.2] over London but over the whole of the British 
Isles [0.6] on the first day of the nineteenth century [0.3] stayed or rather 
[0.3] did not stay [0.6] for it was buffeted about constantly by blustering 
gales long enough to have [0.5] extraordinary consequences [0.3] upon those who 
lived beneath its shadow [1.4] a change seemed to have come over the climate of 
England [0.7] rain fell frequently [0.7] but only in fitful gusts which were no 
sooner over than they began again [1.0] 
and then she moves from that [0.2] to [0.5] er [0.4] a kind of developing of 
the metaphor of dampness [0.9] dampness er in all its possible kind of workings 
and connotations [0.4] is an elaborately [0.4] developed over at at least two 
pages and i won't go into all that now 'cause that would be [0.4] perhaps 
tedious in a lecture [0.5] er [sniff] [1.9] but it is very similar to what 
Charles Dickens does [0.3] at the start of Bleak House [0.4] where he takes [0.
4] again a kind of er a [0.3] climate metaphor this time [0.4] fog [1.1] er the 
great London smog [0.7] and [0.7] develops it into a metaphor [0.4] for the 
workings of [0.4] er Chancery the court of Chancery the Lord Chancellor [0.9] 
er [0.3] and again starts by what appears to be possibly [0.4] realistic 
description [0.6] but then moves into [0.5] er [0.4] a kind of fantastical [0.
5] mode which totally leaves realism behind [0.6] i mean one of the things one 
can [0.4] perhaps say about [1.0] Virginia Woolf is that she's writing [0.2] er 
[1.1] in a modernist tradition and that one might try and define modernism as 
[0.5] coming after nineteenth century social realism and therefore b-, [0.6] 
having as its its er [1.0] its style that of antirealism [0.6] 
er and yet i think what one can see here [0.7] is that in parodying Dickens [0.
6] er she's not [0.8] parodying something which is not already there Dickens 
himself often moves off into fantastical [0.4] and kind of gothic [0.4] er 
elements as ways of making a comment on the social situation [0.9] so that's 
another kind of parody [1.0] which goes on [0.5] throughout this [0.6] this 
novel and again something you might want to do in more detail on your own or in 
seminar [0.3] is kind of work out [0.3] what other prior texts are being [0.2] 
parodied by Virginia Woolf [0.6] er [0.3] but i do want to to mention the fact 
[0.5] and that's over the page on the sheet [2.1] that [1.1] she also parodies 
herself [0.5] er [0.6] she parodies [0.9] the [0.4] Time Passes [0.6] section 
[0.5] of To the Lighthouse [0.4] which is the novel [0.2] which i said at the 
start is based on her childhood [0.4] kind of summers spent [0.2] at Talland 
House [0.6] er [0.6] and [0.2] has er [0.6] an elaborate first section where [0.
4] the comings and goings in the house are described at length [0.4] and then 
moves into a short middle section called [0.3] Time Passes [0.4] where the 
whole of the Great 
War is kind of dealt with in a few pages [0.4] and including you know [0.5] 
people [0.2] kind of dying on battlefields [0.4] er [0.3] the miss-, [0.2] Mrs 
Ramsey character [0.5] dying and so on [0.5] er [0.4] and again i've just taken 
a small amount for the sheet to give you a kind of a feel for it [0.5] er [1.4] 
it's it's [1.4] it it's that sense of trying to capture [0.4] the passing of 
time [0.5] kind of skimming over the top of it rather telling [0.4] er details 
as you [0.4] might normally [0.6] er [0.6] so [0.5] my fifth extract [1.1] is 
from the Time Passes section of To the Lighthouse [0.3] night after night 
summer and winter [0.3] the torment of storms [0.5] the arrow-like stillness of 
fine weather [0.4] held their court without interference [0.7] listening had 
there been anyone to listen [0.4] from the upper rooms of the empty house [0.7] 
only gigantic chaos [0.2] streaked with lightning could have heard [0.3] 
tumbling and tossing as the winds and waves [0.2] disported themselves like the 
amorphous bulks of leviathans [0.8] whose brows are pierced by no light of 
reason mounted one on top of another and lunged and plunged in the darkness 
or the daylight [0.3] for night and day month and year ran shapelessly together 
[0.5] in idiot games until it seemed as if [0.3] the universe were battling and 
tumbling [0.3] in brute confusion [0.3] and wanton lust [0.2] aimlessly [0.3] 
by itself [0.6] well i tried to read that with a slight sense of how easy it 
might be [0.5] to parody that slightly breathless [0.4] style [0.5] er [0.4] 
which is in effect what Virginia Woolf does in what i put on as the fourth 
extract [0.2] on the sheet [0.5] it was now November after November comes 
December [0.3] then January February March and April after April comes May June 
July August follow [0.4] next is September [0.4] then October and so behold 
here we are back at November again [0.4] with the whole year accomplished [0.7] 
er [sniff] [1.7] but clearly there you know it's the poor biographer [0.5] who 
she's she's turning into a kind of butt at her sense of humour [2.2] and i do 
think there may be behind this again a kind of serious [0.2] philosophical 
point but [0.2] i'll come to that in a minute [0.5] okay so that's just to 
alert 
you to different kinds of parody [0.8] in the text [0.4] and i'm not going to 
kind of carry on [0.2] talking about that [0.5] now because i want to talk 
about [0.3] the whole issue of writing history [0.9] er [0.3] before we finish 
[sniff] [1.0] okay so my next sish-, section is about history [1.4] [cough] [0.
2] [sniff] [0.9] and [2.9] i just want to quote you again something i quoted 
you earlier [0.3] and just listen to it carefully [0.8] Vita was the latest in 
a line of the noble Sackvilles [0.4] whose history she had lovingly written a 
few years before Orlando [0.6] in Knole and the Sackvilles nineteen-twenty-two 
[0.6] on which Woolf drew extensively [0.3] for her background to the novel [1.
5] so i quoted that to you that earlier in the lecture as a quick way [0.5] of 
providing some background information about Vita Sackville-West [0.9] and about 
the fact that she had an aristocratic family background [1.0] however [0.4] i 
want to come back to the quotation [1.6] and think about the exact phrasing 
which Rachel Bowlby uses here [0.9] she 
says [0.2] whose history she had lovingly written [0.6] a few years before [1.
8] it's very careful [0.6] very carefully chosen phrase [0.8] and yet [1.0] 
even Rachel Bowlby who i think is a great stylist [0.4] cannot avoid [0.6] the 
ambiguity of the word [0.2] history [1.5] does she mean [0.2] Vita wrote down 
lovingly the authentic and true record of events as they actually happened [0.
6] or does she mean [0.4] Vita wrote down [0.3] her account of her family's 
past [0.9] for [0.3] in the English language [0.3] history [0.5] refers [0.8] 
both to what has happened in the past [0.8] as it happened at the time [0.9] er 
[0.8] which is perhaps what we imply by kind of saying colloquially you know [0.
3] that's history [0.4] he's history whatever [0.6] meaning you know it's past 
it's over i don't have to bother about it [0.6] er [1.1] but history also 
refers to the writing [0.3] of history the study of history [0.6] er [0.5] the 
activity of historians working with secondary sources and producing a kind of 
narrative account [0.6] er [0.4] which we should perhaps more accurate-, [0.2] 
accurately refer to as as [0.4] historiography [2.6] er in fact the only kind 
of 
history we can ever know [0.3] is actually the second [0.5] historiography [1.
0] th-, the telling of the past [0.3] shaping [0.4] an account [0.5] telling a 
story about it [0.5] using a variety of sources to build up [2.3] to build up 
what [0.5] an accurate [0.2] account of the past [0.5] an [0.3] as accurate a 
picture as possible [0.6] or [0.7] you know [0.4] my interpretation of events 
as opposed to somebody else's interpretation of events [0.9] er [0.7] arguably 
even when we try to build up as accurate a picture as possible [0.4] inevitably 
[0.4] all we actually do is give [0.4] you know [0.4] our interpretation of 
events my own interpretation of events [0.9] er [1.3] so in the nineteenth 
century [2.7] historians tended to believe that political history was more 
valuable than other kinds of history [0.6] that the stories of nations could be 
told [0.4] through the exploits of famous men [0.4] military leaders rulers [0.
5] ambassadors diplomats whatever [sniff] [1.0] er [0.6] and in fact there was 
a whole series called Story of Nations which [0.6] i don't suppose anyone here 
is [0.2] is kind of old enough to 
remember [0.5] but anyway [0.6] [0.2] but there are other ways of telling 
stories of the past which might concentrate on [0.8] the daily existence of 
very ordinary people [0.9] er [0.6] and in fact that approach to historical 
studies [0.4] didn't really begin to be developed until [0.4] around the time 
that Virginia Woolf was writing [0.4] Orlando [1.1] er the first issue of 
Annales came out in nineteen-twenty-nine [0.6] er [0.4] and this was a French 
journal which was the focus [0.6] for a new trend [0.3] in historical studies 
[0.4] pioneered i think mainly by hi-, [0.3] French historians [0.6] and which 
led eventually to [0.2] choosing my favourite [0.3] er text like er Le Roy 
Ladurie's [0.3] Montaillou [0.2] Village [0.2] Occitan [0.7] er [0.6] which 
came out in nineteen-seventy-five er [0.6] Montaillou er [0.7] Occitan Village 
[0.3] from [0.3] er twelve-ninety-four to thirteen-twenty-four takes just a 
very short [0.3] time span [0.3] and writes about what happens in the village 
in those rather turbulent times [0.6] er [sniff] [0.9] Knole and the Sackvilles 
[0.6] tells us from its 
title [0.8] that it is a story of a stately home [0.6] and its illustrious 
family [1.2] Montaillou [0.4] Village Occitan on the other hand [0.3] is about 
a small peasant village [0.9] and its inhabitants at a turbulent moment in the 
history of the region [0.3] and one of the things it talks about is the [0.4] 
the the Countess who lives there and and her kind of [0.7] er [0.4] her amour 
but it's only one of the things it's not the central focus [0.6] er [1.1] so as 
so often in her writing [1.1] by critiquing the style and the underlying [0.3] 
ideological assumptions [0.5] of late Victorian and Edwardian culture [1.2] 
Virginia Woolf exhibits a kind of prescience [0.7] of later twentieth century 
trends [0.3] and literary developments [0.4] because she's kind of on the cusp 
of seeing where things need to go next [0.8] so what Woolf critiques [0.6] and 
parodies in Orlando [0.5] is essentially [0.5] the Whig version of history [1.
4] i would say that this has an [0.4] an optimistic [0.2] assumption [0.3] that 
history is a steady [0.4] upward progress [0.3] towards the present moment [0.
6] which is seen as the pinnacle [0.5] of achievement [1.0] and it's only to 
be bettered [0.3] by the future achievements of the human race [0.7] so it 
might intend to be implicitly [0.4] self-congratulatory and self-affirming [1.
0] er [0.5] and one of its assumptions is indeed that history is [0.3] the 
history of mankind [0.5] of the deeds of great men [1.4] but not necessarily 
apart from a few honourable exceptions [0.3] of great women [0.2] or women at 
all [0.6] er so in British history [0.8] er at the time that that Virginia 
Woolf was was writing [0.6] er [0.8] the honourable [0.2] kind of exceptions 
might include [0.5] er Boudicca [0.2] Boadicea [1.1] Queen Elizabeth the First 
[0.5] who becomes a kind of mythologized in Victorian culture [0.6] Queen 
Victoria herself is kind of mythologized while she's still alive [0.6] and 
possibly you get kind of Nell Gwyn [0.2] selling oranges [0.5] er and getting a 
passing mention as as [0.2] Charles the Second's mistress [1.6] so [0.2] i 
think one of the aspects of [0.2] Orlando's sex change [1.1] is the effect it 
has on a historical [0.7] narrative [0.7] er and in a way Virginia Woolf is 
asking the question [0.3] does it make a difference [0.7] 
would it alter our perspective substantially [0.7] if history were routinely [0.
3] her story [0.4] as well [0.9] er [0.5] so i believe this is one of the 
questions Virginia Woolf wishes to raise here [0.9] again i've given you a 
couple of small [0.4] extracts [0.4] extracts six and seven [0.7] where we have 
the biographer in again [0.7] to give a truthful account of London society [0.
3] at that or indeed at any other time [0.4] is beyond the powers of the 
biographer [0.7] or the historian [1.0] only those who have little need of the 
truth [0.3] and no respect for it [0.6] the poets and the novelists can be 
trusted to do it [1.4] for this is one of the cases where the truth [0.6] does 
not exist [1.1] nothing [0.8] exists [0.7] the whole thing is [0.8] a miasma [1.
1] a mirage [2.4] i think he's having a rather kind of bad day this biographer 
i think at this stage [1.6] er [0.8] and then again a few pages later [0.4] 
they're both [0.3] quotes from chapter four to when we're in the eighteenth 
century [0.6] er [1.8] he says [0.3] as that is not a question that can engage 
the attention of a sensible man [0.3] let us [0.2] who enjoy the immunity of 
all 
biographers and historians from any sex whatsoever [0.6] pass it over [1.0] and 
merely state that Orlando [0.3] professed [0.4] great enjoyment in the society 
of her own sex [0.7] and leave it to the gentlemen to prove as they are very 
fond of doing [0.3] that [0.4] it is impossible [2.1] so both these quotes are 
as i say are from chapter f-, [0.3] four when we're in the eighteenth century 
[0.6] and in both Virginia Woolf [0.6] elides the biographer and the historian 
[0.6] suggesting that their's are very similar activities [0.6] namely trying 
to get at [0.2] the truth [0.8] by scrutinizing a variety of secondary sources 
[2.7] [cough] [0.7] but also suggesting that this is you know an impossible [0.
4] task in a way [1.1] now this is at a stage in the text [0.9] where Orlando 
vacillates [0.3] between genders [0.4] on a daily basis [0.8] er [0.5] but i 
don't want to [0.2] kind of as i say talk about that in great detail now t-, 
talk about all those shifts in sexuality gendered identity [0.5] the clothes 
and so on [0.5] er [0.9] what i do want to to just draw your attention to [0.6] 
is the ways in which [0.4] arguably [0.3] Virginia 
Woolf [1.0] also shifts and vacillates [0.4] in the text here [2.4] so [0.2] to 
begin with i suggested when talking about the biographer [0.6] that we should 
differentiate between [0.4] this perplexed biographer [0.2] historian figure [0.
5] and Virginia Woolf the author [0.3] who lurks somewhere behind and beyond 
the text [0.3] doing her best to make us all giggle [0.4] at the biographer [0.
5] and historian and his limitations [1.4] but in chapter four arguably [0.7] 
in fact arguably throughout [0.3] er [0.3] she's also a presence in the text [0.
8] a distinct voice [0.4] that's kind of [0.7] moves in and out so sometimes 
it's the biographer and sometimes it's this other [0.7] arch [0.2] voice [0.5] 
er [1.5] and i think [0.9] she her voice destabilizes our reading [0.7] of the 
novel [0.8] er [0.2] so we can't read it as if it were just written by the 
biographer it's not that straightforward [0.7] er [0.3] she is the poet and 
novelist [0.5] gesturing towards [0.4] other kinds of knowledge [1.4] other 
ways of compremen-, [0.2] comprehending his [0.5] or her [0.4] stories [0.7] er 
[0.6] and i think she's a kind of [0.5] androgynous or possibly female 
consciousness [0.4] er [0.4] which suggests that the biographer who 
assumes that masculinity is synonymous with universal truth [0.5] is missing 
something [0.9] er [0.7] so [0.4] i mean i think if one feels kind of worried 
and anxious reading this text [0.4] this is partly because [0.5] er [0.3] what 
Virginia Woolf is doing is precisely trying to to throw you [0.5] and throw 
your assumptions about you know [0.2] where you think you are [0.9] er [1.1] 
Gerda Lerner [0.5] an American [0.3] historiographer of women's history [0.6] 
has commented [0.7] and i'm sorry i'm g-, you know moving into American 'cause 
i was kind of where i'm really based [0.5] er [0.3] the key to understanding 
women's history [0.6] is in accepting [0.5] painful though it may be [0.8] that 
it is the history [0.4] of the majority [0.5] of the human race [0.9] so 
Virginia Woolf i think toys with the reader [0.4] trying to tease out this 
recognition [0.6] without quite stating it as emphatically as Gerda Lerner [0.
2] would for our generation which is a [0.3] post-war [0.4] generation [0.3] 
[sniff] [3.6] i want to mention briefly er just a few other aspects of Orlando 
[0.4] as a kind of meditation on on history [0.5] 
and historiography [1.4] now the first is that i said that Orlando is a kind of 
critique a parody of the Whig version of history [1.2] but we also get [0.4] as 
it were [0.3] the alternative [0.2] to the Whig version of history [0.5] and 
it's personified in the figure of Nick Greene [1.4] the poet and man of letters 
[0.6] who occurs in the Elizabethan era [1.2] and reoccurs in modern times [0.
6] and if you recall [0.7] he's always disaffected with the present age [1.4] 
as an Elizabethan poet [0.3] he prefers the classics [0.8] and as a modern 
critic [0.4] he abhors contemporary writing [0.6] and harps back to the 
Elizabethan era [0.6] as a glorious period in English literature [0.6] its [0.
3] golden age [0.6] now i've not given you this quotation i don't think but 
just to remind you [0.4] when er [1.6] Orlando meets him [0.2] in London [0.3] 
in the kind of the modern times [1.2] ah he said heaving a sigh which was yet 
comfortable enough [0.2] ah my dear lady [0.3] the great days of literature are 
over [0.4] Marlowe Shakespeare Ben Jonson [0.3] those were the giants [0.4] 
Dryden Pope Addison [0.5] those were the heroes [0.6] all [0.4] all are 
dead now [1.6] and whom have we left us [0.6] Tennyson Browning Carlyle [1.1] 
he threw an immense amount of scorn into his voice [0.7] the truth of it is he 
said pouring himself a glass of wine [0.4] that all our young writers are in 
the pay of booksellers [0.2] they turn out any trash that serves to pay their 
tailor's bills [0.7] it is an age he said helping himself to hors d'oeuvres [0.
5] marked by precious conceits and wild experiments [0.5] none of which the 
Elizabethans would have tolerated for an instant [1.5] so rather than believing 
that [0.4] history is the story of the ascent of man [0.3] to higher and higher 
peaks [0.5] Nick Greene subscribes to the belief that [0.3] history is all 
downhill [0.6] moving [0.4] further and further away from a [0.4] putative 
golden age [0.9] and Woolf indicates the kind of subjectivity [0.5] and the 
fallacy [0.5] in this analysis by having him [0.4] glorify [0.2] in modern 
times [0.3] the exact same literary period [0.3] which he was so dismissive 
about [0.5] at the time in Elizabethan times [1.3] okay one further [0.4] 
reflection i think i have time for [0.9] er [0.6] is 
that [3.3] Orlando [0.4] is both [1.5] a fantastical [0.9] biography a 
fantastical history of [0.2] the lives and times of [0.3] Orlando [1.7] and as 
i say also a history of [0.7] the English literary imagination and its 
succeeding styles [0.4] which is perhaps the only proof we have [1.5] and this 
is highlighted by Orlando's poem [0.4] The Oak Tree [0.8] which survives the 
centuries to win a literary prize in modern times [0.7] er [0.6] and it's also 
[0.4] there in Woolf's parodying different literary styles [1.0] [cough] [0.5] 
but [0.6] the general point i want to make is that [2.2] and it applies both to 
history and literary history [0.4] we tend to think of history [0.6] in terms 
of [0.3] periods [0.2] and also to think of literary history in terms of [0.4] 
periods which become [0.3] synonymous or interchangeable with descriptions [0.
2] of style [0.6] so in the course of this lecture [0.6] i've referred to the 
Elizabethan era [0.4] the eighteenth century the nineteenth century late 
Victorian culture modern times [0.5] with a fairly confident assumption [0.5] 
that when i use these terms they 
kind of mean something you have kind of clusters of associations which build up 
a picture [0.6] of sort of snapshot picture of the these times [0.8] but i 
think the terms are deceptive [1.4] and they're a very shorthand way of 
indicating how time passes [0.6] and how that passage of time affects cultures 
[0.8] in actuality the passage of time from the Elizabethan era to the 
eighteenth century [0.4] is not a handful of photographic images [0.5] a 
succession of imagined snapshots [0.5] but is a continuous [0.3] fluid process 
[0.4] the passage of time from seventeen-ninety-nine to eighteen-hundred [0.8] 
similarly was fluid [0.4] even if we speak of [0.5] the eighteenth century as 
[0.5] the time of the Enlightenment the age of reason [0.4] and then the 
nineteenth century as the Victorian era [0.9] er and victu-, vic-, [0.5] and 
Virginia Woolf [0.9] born into late Victorian culture [0.4] didn't wake up one 
morning [0.4] in nineteen-hundred [0.6] er [0.6] to discover that somehow she 
and everything around her had transformed [0.4] overnight had metamorphosed 
like a kind of butterfly out of a [0.4] 
you know pupa [0.8] so [0.3] i think this is why in her other writing [0.7] er 
[0.4] she is famously known as writing stream of consciousness [0.4] style [0.
5] which is trying to capture the fluidity of the process rather than fix it [0.
5] in snapshots [0.6] er [0.4] and stream of consciousness is actually a 
translation of a French term [0.3] élan vital [0.4] which is introduced er by 
the philosopher Henri Bergson [0.6] er [0.9] and in fact vital is that word 
again [0.3] Vita 
nf0062: if we look at the text of Orlando i bo-, [0.2] A Biography [0.6] er i 
think we find that most of the time [0.5] she's [0.6] not doing stream of 
consciousness [0.3] because she is doing this kind of satire this parody this 
critique [0.7] and one of the things she parodies [0.3] is precisely our 
tendency [0.5] to frame historical periods [0.5] so at the end of chapter four 
she writes [0.3] and i've given you that as the eighth extract [0.4] er i don't 
think i'm going to give it to you all now [0.7] Orlando could remember even now 
the smell of tortuous Elizabethan highways [0.4] on a hot night [0.4] in the 
little rooms and narrow pathways of 
the city [0.4] now [0.2] she leaned out of her window [0.6] all was light [0.3] 
order [0.3] and serenity [1.4] there was a faint rattle of a coach on the 
cobbles [0.3] she heard the faraway cry of the night watchman [0.4] just twelve 
o'clock on a frosty morning [0.7] and then i'll skip a bit [0.5] with the 
twelfth stroke of midnight [0.4] the darkness was complete [0.7] a turbulent 
welter of cloud covered the city [0.7] all was darkness all was doubt all was 
confusion [0.4] the eighteenth century was over [0.5] the nineteenth century [0.
2] had begun [0.3] so the eighteenth century is [0.5] all was light [0.2] order 
and serenity [0.6] and then as soon as you get the last stroke of midnight [0.
3] all was darkness all was doubt all was confusion [0.3] clearly there's a 
critique [0.8] of the ways in which we talk about historical [0.2] times [1.3] 
so what do we conclude from all this [2.0] one of Virginia Woolf's [0.2] 
recurring preoccupations [0.6] is to do with her own situation as a woman of 
letters in patriarchal culture [0.9] and she returns again and again to note [0.
4] the difference it makes to be a woman in a patriarchy [0.9] and she can 
be witty and scathing about this [1.0] but [0.2] one of the benefits of her 
position [1.3] is that she cannot [0.2] take for granted all the things [0.4] 
which a man of letters whether he be historian biographer [0.4] editor [0.5] er 
[0.3] critic publisher poet or novelist [0.3] just [0.2] takes as read [0.7] so 
i would argue that Virginia Woolf's lesbian attraction [0.6] to Vita Sackville-
West [0.4] might well have been a catalyst [0.7] er the catalyst which [0.2] 
decided her to write [0.2] this [0.2] jeu d'esprit [0.5] a satire a whole 
fantasy [0.5] and these are all phrases [0.4] which Virginia uses in her diary 
as she starts to conceive the project [1.0] but the the completed work [0.2] is 
far more than just this jeu d'esprit [0.7] through parody [0.6] Woolf [0.2] 
both enacts and then critiques the history and literary history of her culture 
[0.8] from [0.2] as it were a different space [0.4] now what the diary entry 
actually says is [1.0] no attempt is to be made to realize the character [0.5] 
sapphism is to be suggested [0.6] satire is to be 
the main note [0.5] satire [0.5] and [0.3] wilderness [1.8] now you might 
object that there's not much wilderness [0.2] in the text [0.5] er [0.6] and i 
think literally speaking that's true [0.6] but conceptually [0.2] the text is 
written from if you want the cultural wilderness [0.5] from the wild spaces of 
female culture [0.5] which gazes [0.3] sceptically on patriarchal culture [0.3] 
from the margins [0.5] now Elaine Showalter in the eighties [0.5] theorized 
this wild zone of female culture [0.6] er [0.3] when trying to talk about a 
female aesthetic in woman's writing [0.7] er [0.3] and so that's why next term 
when i talk about modernism and gender [0.4] i want to come back to those 
issues and try and give [0.6] er [0.3] a more coherent account of of Virginia 
Woolf's [0.3] ideas about women's writing [0.3] and again how it might be 
applied to a reading [0.2] of this text [0.4] sorry i've overrun again by a few 
minutes