Summer in London a chance to explore

Graduate students and undergraduates study news clippings from World War II that document women's experiences in London during the Blitz. See the Literature in London photo album.

Graduate students and undergraduates took courses in London this summer offered by SUNY Fredonia's English Department. The courses were combined into a "Literary London" trip in June.

Dr. Jan McVicker taught, "Major Authors: Virginia Woolf," and Dr. Adrienne McCormick taught, "Women's Lit in London."

The Virginia Woolf course focused on the life and writing of Woolf, positioning her in the Bloomsbury group, feminist studies, and literary modernism. Students read a selection of her writings, including The London Scene, A Room of One’s Own, Mrs. Dalloway, Moments of Being, Three Guineas and others.

"Women’s Lit in London" focused on women writers of the 20th century, exploring British women’s experiences centered in London history. Students began with The Emporer’s Babe, a novel in verse by Bernardine Evaristo exploring gender and race in Roman Londinium via 20th century chick lit. From there, they moved to Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier on militant suffragists at the turn of the 20th century, and then to Sarah Waters’ The Night Watch, which explores the experiences of women during the Blitz and WWII London.

The second week of the course turned to representations of the contemporary period, featuring explorations of postcolonial and postmodern London via such works as Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, Penelope Lively’s City of the Mind, plays by Caryl Churchill, and poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, and Moniza Alvi.

Excursions of interest featured included an angel tour at Highgate Cemetery, archival research on suffragists at the Museum of London, and on Virginia Woolf at the Women’s Library, as well as theater trips to view the works of women playwrights. lectures on the effects of British colonialism on Indian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Textiles and Design, exploring the Indian communities of London at Brick Lane, as well as related art exhibits at the British Museum, Tate Modern and the Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Students also spent a few days studying in Oxford, touring the campuses and seeing what college life in England is like.