Women writing and walking: Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd, Rebecca Solnit

What is the course about?

This online Literature course focuses on the relationship between walking and writing in three innovative works of literary non-fiction: Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Street Haunting’ (1927); Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain (written c. 1945, first published 1977); and Rebecca Solnit’s ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ (2006). All three writers use writing and walking - whether that be in the City, in Nature, or through the landscapes of the mind – to move towards a wider representation of the Self and its relationship to the world.

Half term 29 May 2024.

This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone if you don't have a computer.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.

What will we cover?

We will locate Woolf, Shepherd and Solnit as female writers working within a long – mostly male – tradition of writing about walking, and consider some of the ways in which they extend and develop that tradition.

In our first, introductory session, we will explore the roots of writing about walking in the Romantic period, and how women of the time – including Dorothy Wordsworth among others – engaged with Romantic ideas in their walking and writing. We will also touch upon later nineteenth century traditions of writing and walking, including urban walking and figure of the flaneur. Our understanding of these traditions will help to inform our readings of the later, main texts.

In her seminal essay, ‘Street Haunting’, Woolf writes of taking a walk through London; through this work we explore the idea of the ‘flaneuse’ – a female observer of modern urban life. Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, by contrast, has been termed a masterpiece of nature writing (though its lyrical prose defies any easy generic definition). Writing that ‘the body may be said to think’, she evokes an embodied, meditative experience of the Cairngorm mountains that resonates powerfully with our increasingly ‘virtual’ and distracted lives. Rebecca Solnit’s ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ is informed by, but moves beyond, her earlier history of walking, ‘Wanderlust’ (2001), to explore ‘terrain without scale’ in a work that explores wider themes of distance and loss.

We will consider the innovative forms and language of these works; explore their themes and concerns; and think about how they may be ‘in conversation’ with one another as part of an evolving tradition of women walking and writing.

What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Have an increased understanding and appreciation of the language and form of these works.

• Have an increased understanding and appreciation of the themes and concerns of these works.

What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?

The course is open to all; you do not need to have prior knowledge to participate.

How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?

he course will be taught online through close reading of textual extracts, visual slides, and class discussion.

Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?

You will need to buy or borrow:

Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain (Canongate, 2011 edition if possible)

Rebecca Solnit, ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’, (Canongate, 2017 edition if possible)

A digital handout will provided of Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Street Haunting’ and of contextual material.

When I've finished, what course can I do next?

Look for other essay, fiction and poetry courses under History, Culture and Writing/Literature/Fiction/Literary non-fiction on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk.