The Educative Meaning and Value of Absent and Present Photographs in Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas

• In Event: 35.082 - Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: 35.082-6 - Forging Connections: Literature, Psychology, Philosophy, and Education

Abstract

I use Berger’s (1968/2013) definition of photography and Sontag’s essays on photography (1977) and others’ pain (2003) as theoretical lens for analyzing absent and present photographs in Three Guineas to elucidate the meaning and value of educating for war or to prevent war. I define and explain Berger’s concept of photography and the photograph; analyze Woolf’s text, specifically, juxtapositions of absent and present photographs; metaphor and metonomy; pictorial and verbal images and philosophical text. I “play with Berger” and reveal photographs’ significance to Woolf’s educational philosophy. Woolf cleverly uses photography to embody her argument to educate girls and boys to prevent war.

Author

• Virginia Ann Worley, Oklahoma State University