Scarica Virginia Woolf: A Modernist Novelist and Her Literary Career e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! VIRGINIA WOOLF • Grew up in a literary context because her father was a literally man, mother died when Virginia was young • The death of her mother affected Virginia and for a long period she suffered from depression, she also had a nervous breakdown • She was influenced by some contemporary writers and artists like marcel proust and Igor Stravinsky and also the post-impressionists • Her anxiety increased with second ww, she wrote a draft of her suicide notes and then drowned herself by putting rocks into her pockets LITERARY CAREER • After the death of her father, she moved to Bloomsbury and became a member of a circle of intellectuals called Bloomsbury Group • She wrote novels, essays, diaries and biographies. She is famous for her experimental style that she uses in many of her novels • In her novels, she captures the changes of the world in which she was working: transformations in gender roles, sexuality but also technologies like cars, airplanes and cinema. • She is interested in the main themes of modernism: subconscious, time, impact of war • She uses the STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS to portray the interior lives of her characters • This technique is completely developed in her work “Mrs Dalloway” and also “To the Lighthouse” • She is a feminist writer because she deals withe the themes of androgyny, women and writing • We can see the theme of androgyny in “Orlando” where she fictionalized the life of one of her friends • Mrs Dalloway: clarissa and sally seton’s relationship • A room of one’s own: ironic account of the position of women in society A MODERNIST NOVELIST • Her aim was to give voice to the complex inner world of feeling and memory • She deals with human personality that is a continuous shift of impressions and emotions • She didn’t use the omniscient narrator, point of view is inside the characters’ mind • She uses flashbacks, associations of ideas presented as a continuous flux MRS DALLOWAY • Takes place on a single day • Follows the protagonist through her day, until the night when she gives a formal party • The protagonist is Clarissa Dalloway, her party is the climax of the novel and unifies the narrative by gathering the people she thinks about during the day
CLARISSA • London society lady, wife of a conservative MP who has conventional views on women’s rights • Possessive father, refused Peter Walsh • She is characterized by opposing feelings: need of freedom / her class consciousness • Her life seems to be like and effort towards order and peace, an attempt to overcome her weakness and sense of failure VIRGINIA WOOLF JAMES JOYCE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Her characters’ thoughts never flow without control, she maintains logical and grammatical organization STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Characters show their thoughts directly through interior monologue, incoherent MOMENT OF BEING Rare moments of insight during the characters’ daily life, they can see reality behind the appearances EPIPHANY Sudden spiritually manifestation caused by external objects, character is led to a self-realization about himself SEPTIMUS WARREN SMITH • Young poet and lover of Shakespeare • Enlisted for patriotic reasons • Sensitive man who can fall prey to panic and fear or feelings of guilt • Specifically connected with the war, suffer from insomnia, commits suicide TO THE LIGHTHOUSE • It hasn’t traditional plot, there is a series of experiences, memories and emotions held together by symbols • Story developed in 10 years, divided into three parts 1. THE WINDOW: start before ww1, set during a summer afternoon in the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides 2. TIME PASSES: it covers about 10 years, children grow up, war breaks out, Mrs Ramsay dies suddenly. Her eldest son is killed in battle, the daughter dies too. The summerhouse falls in a state of decay untile the family comes back 3. THE LIGHTHOUSE: less than 1 day, time experienced and recaptured in memory, replaces outer time. Mr Ramsay, his son and an other daughter sail to the lighthouse. Lily finishes her painting MRS RAMSAY • Beautiful woman and loving wife, provides support to the other characters • Her main objective is to preserve her son James’s sense of hope and wonder in relation to the lighthouse • Realizes that the beauty of the world is temporary and should be protected • Has the ability to bring together different things into a whole • After her death, Lily and other characters try to reach this unity LILY CRISCOE • Painter who fears her work will end up in attics or under a couch • Rejects conventional image of the woman represented by Mrs Ramsay • Her portraits of Mrs. Ramsay embodies her doubts: At the beginning of the novel she cannot make sense of the shapes and colors that she tries to reproduce THEMES • Temporariness: idea that nothing lasts
mrs Ramsay doesn’t want her children to grow up, house falls into decay • Loss: Minta loses her brooch on the beach, family loses some of the members • Art: ambition to stop the flux of time is embodied by Lily Briscoe • Force of love: mrs Ramsay thinks love can create durable memories and that make moments permanent SYMBOLISM • The sea: fullness of life and the imminence of death • Land / house: idea of shelter and stability • Window: dividing and connecting point between the self and society • Lighthouse: positive symbol linked to light, comfort, hope, reference point in a changing world A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN • Virginia Woolf has been invited to giva lecture on the topic of women and fiction • Her essay is constructed as a partly-fictionalized narrative of the steps that led her to adopt this thesis • The narrator reflects on the different educational experiences of men and women, and also on differences in their lives • Judith Shakespeare is generated as an example of the fate that an intelligent woman would have met • She considers the achievements of the major women novelists of the nineteenth century and reflects on the importance of tradition to an aspiring writer.
