Women writing and walking: Virginia Woolf, Nan Shepherd, Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

What is the course about?

We focus on the relationship between walking and writing in four 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); Rebecca Solnit’s ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’ (2006), and Elizabeth-Jane Burnett’s ‘The Grassling’ (2019). All four 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 understanding and representation of the Self and its relationship to the world.

Please note there will be a break week on 22nd May.

What will we cover?

We will locate Woolf, Shepherd, Solnit and Burnett 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) – 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. Elizabeth-Jane Burnett’s ‘The Grassling – A Geological Memoir’ brings a poetic, ecological sensibility to her exploration of identity, language and the body in landscape.

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?

The course will be taught in person at Keeley Street 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 borrow or buy:

Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain (Canongate, 2011 edition if possible)
Rebecca Solnit, ‘A Field Guide to Getting Lost’, (Canongate, 2017 edition if possible)
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, The Grassling (Penguin, 2020 edition if possible)

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

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

Look up other literary non-fiction and literature courses on our website under History, Culture and Writing/Literature/Literary non-fiction at www.citylit.ac.uk.