Virginia Woolf, the Intellectual and the Public Sphere by Melba Cuddy-Keane, and: Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy by Holly Henry (review)

Abstract

356 356 Reviews Reviews I suspect has been firm and skilfulediting, so that the collection as a whole is both focused and vigorous. Madness apart, modernism is here made a little less elusive. UNIVERSITY OFPLYMOUTH ALANMUNTON Virginia Woof, the Intellectual and the Public Sphere. By MELBA CUDDY-KEANE. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2003. x + 237 PP. ?4o; $60. ISBN:0-52I-82867-8. Virginia WoofandtheDiscourse ofScience: TheAesthetics ofAstronomy. By HOLLY HENRY. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2003. xiii + 208 pp. ?40; $55. ISBN: 0-52I-81297-6. Changes in critical direction generally come about slowly; the result of a gradual accretion of research. Only rarelydoes a book appear which suddenly and singlehandedly reworks the critical terrain. Melba Cuddy-Keane's VirginiaWoolf,the Intellectual andthePublicSphere is such a book. Its concerns -class, democracy, and reading-have caused frictionin Woolf studies,but these are topics which call out for this kind of thoughtful,illuminatingscholarshipgiven their centralityto Woolf s thinking. Cuddy-Keane's central concept, 'democratic highbrow', will radically alter the vocabularywith which we talkabout Woolf and class, preciselybecause it negotiates her desire for inclusivityandintellectualism. Class hostility has, of course, always followed Woolf, more or less ferociously. Antagonism towards the Bloomsbury Group and the idea of an intelligentsiastill characterizesBritishreactionsto Woolf. Criticsseekingto counter chargesof elitism have, quite rightly,made much of her involvementwith the Women's Co-operative Guild, the LabourParty,the WEA, and have focused on her own awarenessof her classprivilege,as well as women's complex relationshipto classcategories.But there is often a residual defensivenessin critical discussionsof Woolf and class. Sticking points remain, one of which has been her use of the term 'highbrow'.The crucial move in Cuddy-Keane's book is an uncoupling of the term highbrow from its associationswith 'upper class'. Highbrowism,for Woolf, denotes an intellectualism that is about reading and writingpracticesnot limited or dictatedby classposition. According to Cuddy-Keane, Woolf wanted to see the values of intellectuallife and the practices of dialogic, critical, active reading and writing available to a broad public. 'Highbrow'and the 'common reader'are, therefore,not oppositionalterms. The phrase 'public intellectual' has been used in conjunction with Woolf for some time now. One of the great strengths of this book is its historicized and contextualized account of how and why Woolf took part in public discourse. Cuddy-Keane discusses, for example, the topicality of the terms highbrow and lowbrow, in the context of heated debates about popular cultureversus the role of the intellectualin the modernistperiod. Controversiesin the I920s and I930s about adult and working-classeducation and its relationship to democratic society are also outlined with Cuddy-Keane's characteristicrigour and perceptivity. Woolf s awarenessof and engagement with these debates define her as a public intellectual. Cuddy-Keane focuses, for example, on Woolf s essay 'Middlebrow'as an intervention in the 1932BBC exchange betweenJ. B. Priestleyand Harold Nicolson about high/lowbrowism. Woolf detaches class position from such categories, as well as identifyingthe problem as middlebrowculture, driven by profit and characterized I suspect has been firm and skilfulediting, so that the collection as a whole is both focused and vigorous. Madness apart, modernism is here made a little less elusive. UNIVERSITY OFPLYMOUTH ALANMUNTON Virginia Woof, the Intellectual and the Public Sphere. By MELBA CUDDY-KEANE. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2003. x + 237 PP. ?4o; $60. ISBN:0-52I-82867-8. Virginia WoofandtheDiscourse ofScience: TheAesthetics ofAstronomy. By HOLLY HENRY. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. 2003. xiii + 208 pp. ?40; $55. ISBN: 0-52I-81297-6. Changes in critical direction generally come about slowly; the result of a gradual accretion of research. Only rarelydoes a book appear which suddenly and singlehandedly reworks the critical terrain. Melba Cuddy-Keane's VirginiaWoolf,the Intellectual andthePublicSphere is such a book. Its concerns -class, democracy, and reading-have caused frictionin Woolf studies,but these are topics which call out for this kind of thoughtful,illuminatingscholarshipgiven their centralityto Woolf s thinking. Cuddy-Keane's central concept, 'democratic highbrow', will radically alter the vocabularywith which we talkabout Woolf and class, preciselybecause it negotiates her desire for inclusivityandintellectualism. Class hostility has, of course, always followed Woolf, more or less ferociously...