Behind The Yellow Wallpaper: A Workshop Tickets and Dates

A vivid immersion in a nineteenth century feminist horror classic.

This event takes place at the British Library.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was an American writer and feminist. Her works critiqued the economic, social and medical systems that enclosed and dehumanised women. Her most famous short story, The Yellow Wallpaper (1899), was written in response to her own treatment by doctors she trusted for a ‘severe and continuous nervous breakdown’.

In her short essay, Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, she describes how mandated bed rest and reduction to the state of an invalid caused her to ‘come so near the border line of utter mental ruin that I could see over.’

The Yellow Wallpaper gives voice and agency to the narrator, who confronts mental illness, societal repression and, ultimately, the transcendent experience of art. This workshop is structured in the inclusive LitSalon tradition: dynamically facilitated discussion with a weave of contextual information and insights.

Preparation: if you are able to read The Yellow Wallpaper (12 pages) in advance it would be useful, but is not mandatory.

18.30 – 19.30: Readings of selected passages by actor Jane Wymark, with contextual and thematic exploration by London Literary Salon Director Toby Brothers.

19.30 – 20.30: Group (whole group and smaller sub-groups) discussion of Gilman’s exploration of the female voice and use of Fantasy for escape and survival.

There is also time set by for a short break, with refreshments included.

See you behind the wallpaper...

 

Toby Brothers (MA Education, Literature, Counselling, Psychology) is Founding director of the London Literary Salon, leading seminars on themes ranging from creative writing to women’s literature and film, from Black American Literature to world religions and wisdom traditions, not to forget Shakespeare, Proust and Joyce. Her students include adults, secondary and primary school pupils. Toby has over 25 years of innovative teaching and seminar experience in France, the USA and Japan, as well as in the UK, where she founded the London Literary Salon in 2008.

Actor Jane Wymark is known for playing Morwenna Chynoweth Whitworth (Morwenna Carne by the close of the series) in the BBC drama Poldark (1977), and more recently as Joyce Barnaby in ITV’s Midsomer Murders. She has appeared in television dramas such as The Bass Player and the Blonde, A Touch of Frost, Dangerfield, Lovejoy and Pie in the Sky. She also appeared as Jill Mason in the Birmingham Rep production of Equus.

Artwork: Portrait of Mojisola Elufowoju (2020, oil on linen) by Kehinde Wiley with the kind permission of the Kehinde Wiley Studio

This event accompanies the British Library exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination (27 October – 25 February) supported by Wayland Games and Unwin Charitable Trust: 




Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event.

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