Virginia Woolf describes the essay as a transformative literary form: ‘you can say in this shape,’ Woolf writes, ‘what you cannot with equal fitness say in any other.’ In this course, students will explore and amplify their own transformative personal experiences of living and studying abroad by an in-depth reading of British essayists, and through practical experimentation with the various forms these writers used. 

Studying Woolf and George Orwell alongside contemporary British writers such as Zadie Smith, Olivia Laing, and Pico Iyer, students will consider fundamental questions related to writing about experience. How do writers examine the concept of home in relation to new lands and landscapes? How can location help us think about memory, politics, identity, and belonging? How can place be considered, both literally and figuratively? And how do essay writers explore those aspects of British culture and history that most capture their curiosity? 

Classes will include the discussion of texts that will serve as models for students’ own writing; the practices of brainstorming and workshopping; and the examination of four key essay forms—narrative, disjunctive, focused, and lyric. Students will be encouraged to become an active group of writers and editors, critically appraising their own and others’ work during constant creative rethinking and redrafting.

The course culminates in a trip to the vibrant seaside city of Brighton, and a visit to Monk’s House, Virginia Woolf’s cottage, one of the haunts of the famous Bloomsbury Group.    

Professor: Cassandra Kircher, Senior faculty Fellow in English, Elon University, kircherc@elon.edu