Virginia Woolf

• “Novel of sensibility” (mainly female) – interested in the sensibility and exploration of mind, thoughts of protagonist

• Elitist writer

• Her father: editor, journalist, he knew everybody in literary circles

• Privately thought at home

• Her mother died early

• “Bloomsbury Group”

  • A group of writers and friends who shared a lot, conversations about everything,

  • Graduates from Cambridge

  • They shared common ethics (self-knowledge, looking for truth, rejecting prejudices, brought on the samples of O. Wilde and aestheticism)

  • Members:

    • E.M. Foster

    • L. Strachey – historical novelist

    • J. M. Keynes

  • But after II WW the group started to be perceived as upper-class snobs who didn’t know real life (no financial problems etc)

• V. Woolf and her husband found printing house – Hogarth Press (quality, good published books, no mistakes, beautiful covers, layouts etc)

• She suffered from depression, publishing was to be a therapy for her

• She committed suicide drowning in the Thames

• She wrote novels and essays

• Novels:

  • 1915 – “The Voyage Out” –a story of a trip of a young lady, convention like Victorian, narrowed time of action, limited place (the ship), limited number of characters, deep exploration of characters, relationship, story of life/voyage – metaphorical 2 levels

  • 1922 “Jacob’s Room”

    • Monologues of the protagonist, stream of consciousness, Jacob was a soldier (1WW), he died, he’s being described by the people who knew him, his family; unknown narrator describes his room, what remained after him, emotions of his friend

    • Moving picture of him

    • A series of episodes

  • 1923 “Mrs. Dalloway”

    • A story of 1 day of Mrs. Dalloway

    • 2 plots:

      • One connected with Mrs. Dalloway – a lady; she’s to organize a party that evening

      • W. Smith – veteran of IWW, unfortunate, vet. Trauma, he cannot live, suicide

    • A the 1^st sight these 2 novels are separate, one common element – a doctor

    • But both are about life, living next to other people (for Mrs. D – essence of life, parties, meetings)

    • 2 levels – action realistic plot <> what’s inside characters mind

  • “To the Lighthouse” (3 parts)

    • Trip to a family summer house for a holidays, they plan to go to a lighthouse

    • What happened later, the war

    • Those who remained from the family try to go to the lighthouse

  • “To the waves”

  • “Orlando”

• Essays – her ideas of literature, theory of fiction

  • “A room of ones own” – about female writers at the beginning of 20^th century

    • Material situation of female writers

    • No female tradition in literature, drama, poetry

    • No luxury of free time

    • No predecessors to follow

    • Novel – less ambitious genre

• Typical features of V. Woolf connecting her with modernists

  • Relative unimportance of the plot, reduction of events, little actions

  • Structure of novel – episodic, seemingly chaotic, but very deep

  • Concentration on the mind of the character, interior monologue, limiting omniscience of the narrator

  • Distraction of time (?)

  • Her prose is described as poetic prose (typical elements of poetic language, metaphors, rhetorical figures, expressing feelings, emotions, exploring personality of characters)

  • Limited number of characters, time, place (like Jane Austen)

  • She’s re-read by feminists, lesbians and gays

  • Film adaptations “Orlando”; “Mrs. Dalloway”; “The Hours”

WYKŁAD 19