The Service of an Ideology: Bloomsbury in the 1930s

Date
2002
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of History
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Haverford users only
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
Bloomsbury experienced the political atmosphere of the 1930s as an attack upon civilization. "A struggle is taking place," Leonard Woolf wrote, "in the heart of society, and instinctively the barbarians throw the whole of their weight upon the side of barbarianism." Bloomsbury resisted the pull of barbarism by introducing a critical, pacific voice that countered the jingoistic and belligerent tone of European nations. Its members expressed this alternative resistance through an examination of "civilization." They cast off the layers of nationalistic rhetoric attached to the concept and introduced a revised notion of civilization that adhered to the Bloomsbury pacific philosophy. Because Bloomsbury's pacific ideology countered the mainstream period's aggressive and fearful tone, scholars tend to suggest that the group was silenced into dissolution by the force of events in the 1930s. As I will argue, however, the threat to civilization, the tensions and anxieties which seemed to sweep people into irrationality and violence compelled Bloomsbury to express even more fervently and clearly what its members had always believed. Bloomsbury, so far from being silenced, located in its particular focus upon "civilization" a means of expression and action in accordance with its ideology.
Description
Citation
Collections