Virginia Woolf and Her Influences presents papers from the Seventh Annual Conference on Virginia Woolf at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire June 12-15, 1997. These papers fall under the theme of 'the influence of something upon somebody' as it arises throughout Woolf's work. The careful arrangement of the essays carries them over from the context of the conference to provide a range of critical and expanded approaches to Woolf's writing under the groupings of Reading/Writing the Individual, Historical Positionings, Creative Revolutions, and Theoretical Foray. Each part concludes with a section of 'Teachings' that recognizes the emphasis that Woolf placed on education and its impact on constructions of the body, on constructions of history, and on art and its interpretations. The editors' main goal is to expand the understanding of Woolf so that her creativity and ideas can be appreciated from not only the traditional perspective, but modern, varied perspectives as well.

From the destruction of Sodom to the selling of Gay Street, urban life and homosexuality have been made inseparable in Western culture. Abraham looks at the evolution of this symbiotic relationship over the past two centuries, tracing how homosexuals have become model citizens of the modern city and avatars of the urban.