Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy

Holly Henry investigates how advances in astronomy in the early twentieth century influenced Woolf's literature and aesthetics and the work of such modernist British writers as Vita Sackville-West, H.G. Wells, and T.S. Eliot. In re-evaluating the cultural context out of which Modernism emerged, Henry contends that Woolf formulated a global vision that helped shape her fiction and her pacifist politics through her fascination with astronomy. Henry's study includes revealing examinations of unpublished scientific and literary archival material.