Merve Erme on Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf

Oct 22, 2024

Merve Emre, an acclaimed writer and expert on Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, dives deep into the fascinating lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. They discuss how family tragedies, like the death of their brother Toby, propelled their artistic paths and shaped the Bloomsbury Group. Emre illuminates their collaborative spirits, contrasting their artistic styles and influences. The conversation also touches on the sisters' break from Victorian norms, their shared struggles, and their lasting impact on the modernist movement and women's representation in art.

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Intro

00:00 • 4min

Sisters of Art: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf

03:49 • 14min

Parental Loss and Liberation: The Woolf Siblings' Journey

17:25 • 2min

The Shift from Victorian Values to Bloomsbury Innovation

19:41 • 2min

The Unseen Catalyst: Toby's Death and Its Impact on Woolf and Bell

21:32 • 2min

Creative Contrasts: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf

23:41 • 21min

Sisterhood in Modernism

44:36 • 5min

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the writer, critic, and author, Merve Emre. Currently the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University – and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism – Emre is also the acclaimed and award-winning author of numerous books. These include Paraliterary: The Making of Bad Readers in Postwar America; The Personality Brokers (selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times, and others); The Ferrante Letters (winner of the 2021 PROSE award for literature). A holder of prizes in Literary Criticism, Emre is also a contributing writer to The New Yorker, where she has written extensively on art and literature, from Leonora Carrington to Susan Sontag. But! The reason why we are speaking to Emre today is because she is also an ardent expert on Virginia Woolf and the wider Bloomsbury Group, having authored the stunningly beautiful – and informative – The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, a book that brings alive Woolf’s life and words, and contextualises the radical and pioneering lives of those in the Bloomsbury Group in the most effervescent ways. So today on the podcast, we are going to be discussing the sisters at the centre of this movement: Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, women who were born into a Victorian society in London but who broke free of all traditions, who formed languages, both artistic and literary, that paved the way of modernism and modernist thinking in the UK and beyond. We are going to be delving into their life and work: looking at how they informed each other and visualised or put into words the world from their distinct and radical perspectives. Merve's book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-annotated-mrs-dalloway/merve-emre/virginia-woolf/9781631496769 Charleston Trust: https://www.charleston.org.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw99e4BhDiARIsAISE7P857bJ_t36EZCN2JGBsJDUlVSxga42Bmq66SzIuCslkje6DXQsi94AaAmYZEALw_wcB Mrs Dalloway's Party: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/05/discovered-a-lost-possible-inspiration-for-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield