Unmastery: Woolf’s far side of language and the pedagogy of the pause

In this article, Eve Sorum argues that Woolf’s use of pauses illustrates a feminist pedagogy of unmastery, providing readers and teachers with an alternative approach to reading that counteracts what Woolf saw as patriarchal modes of experiencing language and defining knowledge. Through an examination of essays including “On Not Knowing Greek,” “Why?,” “Craftsmanship,” and “The Reader,” Sorum posits that unmastery involves rethinking a one-way relationship between the knower and the “object” of knowledge, between reader and text.