Mrs Dalloway and the Vote
Virginia Woolf Season 2024-25: Woolf and Politics
Lecture 7. Mrs Dalloway (1925) and the Vote
In 1918, after decades of campaigning, the vote in Britain was extended to men over 21 and to women over 30. Mrs Dalloway is set in 1923, in Westminster, at the heart of Britain’s political system. Clarissa Dalloway is married to a Conservative MP, and gives parties for their political class.
In the novel, some characters would be recently enfranchised (Clarissa, Septimus), while others would still not have the vote (Miss Kilman, Elizabeth, Lucy). The ruling-class men in the novel (Richard, Hugh Whitbread) would have had the vote for many decades.
Why does this matter? How does Woolf think about the right to vote - how much difference does it make? How do her characters regard themselves in relation to political power? And how might the history of the suffrage struggle inform the first readers’ sense of the novel?
Live online lecture and seminar with Trudi Tate, Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and Director of Literature Cambridge
Saturday 8 March 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning/lunchtime in the Americas
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students on a low income
£27.00 CAMcard holders
£27.00 members of the VWSGB
Virginia Woolf Season 2024-25: Woolf and Politics
Lecture 7. Mrs Dalloway (1925) and the Vote
In 1918, after decades of campaigning, the vote in Britain was extended to men over 21 and to women over 30. Mrs Dalloway is set in 1923, in Westminster, at the heart of Britain’s political system. Clarissa Dalloway is married to a Conservative MP, and gives parties for their political class.
In the novel, some characters would be recently enfranchised (Clarissa, Septimus), while others would still not have the vote (Miss Kilman, Elizabeth, Lucy). The ruling-class men in the novel (Richard, Hugh Whitbread) would have had the vote for many decades.
Why does this matter? How does Woolf think about the right to vote - how much difference does it make? How do her characters regard themselves in relation to political power? And how might the history of the suffrage struggle inform the first readers’ sense of the novel?
Live online lecture and seminar with Trudi Tate, Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and Director of Literature Cambridge
Saturday 8 March 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning/lunchtime in the Americas
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students on a low income
£27.00 CAMcard holders
£27.00 members of the VWSGB
Virginia Woolf Season 2024-25: Woolf and Politics
Lecture 7. Mrs Dalloway (1925) and the Vote
In 1918, after decades of campaigning, the vote in Britain was extended to men over 21 and to women over 30. Mrs Dalloway is set in 1923, in Westminster, at the heart of Britain’s political system. Clarissa Dalloway is married to a Conservative MP, and gives parties for their political class.
In the novel, some characters would be recently enfranchised (Clarissa, Septimus), while others would still not have the vote (Miss Kilman, Elizabeth, Lucy). The ruling-class men in the novel (Richard, Hugh Whitbread) would have had the vote for many decades.
Why does this matter? How does Woolf think about the right to vote - how much difference does it make? How do her characters regard themselves in relation to political power? And how might the history of the suffrage struggle inform the first readers’ sense of the novel?
Live online lecture and seminar with Trudi Tate, Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and Director of Literature Cambridge
Saturday 8 March 2025
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning/lunchtime in the Americas
£32.00 full price
£27.00 students on a low income
£27.00 CAMcard holders
£27.00 members of the VWSGB