Virginia Woolf and the Politics of Language

In a world struggling with ‘fundamentalisms’, media consolidation and the stifling of dissent, there is an urgent need for scepticism, critical thinking, and ultimately, a greater understanding of the complexities and functions of language. This timely study explores the relevance of Virginia Woolf’s texts to questions regarding the dissemination and the deciphering of ‘information’ in our current political situation. Judith Allen approaches Woolf as a theorist of language as well as a theorist of the reading process. Closely examining her narrative and rhetorical strategies she shows how Woolf’s texts both express and enact her politics. The book ranges from Michel de Montaigne to the Dixie Chicks, from the newspaper empire of World War I - the Northcliffe Press - to today’s mainstream newspapers, Rupert Murdoch’s empire and the ‘blogosphere’. Close readings of Woolf’s essays including A Room of One’s Own, Three Guineas and ‘Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid’, as well as several novels, focus on Woolf’s interrogation of language - sometimes single resonant words - to show how she awakens her readers to new ways of reading, to new questions of their own.