NATIONAL LITERATURE – SEMINAR 2

1.   The fictional writing of Virginia Woolf: the aesthetic principles.

2.   V. Woolf as a theorist of the modernist novel: her essay “Modern Fiction”.
3.   “Mrs. Dalloway” by V. Woolf as a psychological, “stream-of-consciousness” novel: the
peculiarities of narrative form.
4.   The image of Clarissa Dalloway and the role of women in the Edwardian society.
5.   The motifs of death and loneliness in the novel: the image of Septimus W. Smith.
6.    The audio-visual image of the city of London in “Mrs. Dalloway”.

1.

Virginia Woolf is known as a Modernist writer. She was definitely very influential in the early 1900s and
had an important role in the context of Modernist literature. Her work was (and still is) appreciated
because of its departure from the traditional, descriptive novel to some innovative and experimental
writing style.

While Virginia Woolf’s ideas about “the art of writing” developed throughout her life, I would say that it
is still possible to identify some major aesthetic principles on which her practice and literary criticism
were based.

First of all for Woolf, writing was a method of communication for her and I assume that for this particular
reason Woolf’s literary criticism demonstrated her overriding concern for the need for a new aesthetics as
well as he herself stated that literature was in need of “new forms for new sensations”.

And even in one of her most often quoted passages Woolf wrote: “If he [the writer] could base his work
upon his own feeling and not upon convention, there would be no plot, no comedy, no tragedy, no love
interest or catastrophe in the accepted style”. Moreover, she also added that modern consciousness
demands to “liven the faded colours of bygone (байгон) ages” and, therefore, “fresh shapes must be given
to the old commodities”.

Since for Woolf reality lies in individual perception and individual experience of consciousness, I can say
that she eagerly accepted the post-impressionist scheme to abandon realism, or, as she called it,
“materialism” . She said that the last one was concerned with the body rather than the spirit, and those
artists were writing of “unimportant things”, and making so much efforts for it.

Because, On the other hand, she considered modern fiction as it should by no means be a reproduction of
the surface appearance of things, but vice versa - it should be based on a mental journey.

2. The essay itself is a criticism of writers and literature from the previous generation. It also acts as a
guide for writers of modern fiction to write what they feel, not what society or publishers want
them to write.

In "Modern Fiction", Woolf explains what she understands modern fiction to be.

- Woolf states that a writer should write what inspires them and not follow any special method.
- Woolf believes it is a writer's job to write the complexities in life, the unknowns, not about the
unimportant things.
She criticizes several authors (H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy) of writing about unimportant
things and called them materialists. And While doing so, she praises several other authors for their
innovation. This group of writers she names spiritualists, and includes James Joyce who Woolf says writes
what interests and moves him.

As a critic, she does not take an analytical point of view and I believe it is due to the influences of
impressionism . Her writing and criticism was often done by intuition and feelings rather than by a
scientific, analytical method. Virginia Woolf says of criticism:

- “Life escapes; and perhaps without life nothing else is worth while. It is a confession of vagueness
to have to make use of such a figure as this, but we scarcely better the matter by speaking, as critics
are prone to do, of reality. – Modern Fiction”.

Woolf's analysis of Russian versus British literature

In "Modern Fiction", Woolf takes the time to analyse Anton Chekhov's "Gusev" and in general, how
Russians write. We know that Woolf even spent time polishing translated Russian texts for a British
audience because it gave her perspectives.

I would say that To Woolf, Russian writers could see something entirely different in life than the British. In
comparison to Russian writers and authors, Woolf says of British literature:

- “It is the saint in them [Russian writers] which confounds us with a feeling of our own irreligious
triviality, and turns so many of our famous novels to tinsel and trickery...They are right perhaps;
unquestionably they see further than we do and without our gross impediments of vision”
3.
- Stream of consciousness writing is associated with the early 20th-century Modernist movement.
- The term “stream of consciousness” originated in psychology before literary critics began using it
to describe a narrative style that depicts how people think.
- It is used primarily in fiction and poetry, but the term has also been used to describe plays and
films that attempt to visually represent a character's thoughts.

Stream of consciousness writing allows readers to “listen in” on a character's thoughts. In short, it's the
use of language to mimic the "streaming" nature of "conscious" thought (thus it is called "stream of
consciousness"). And what is alos important to mention is that Stream of consciousness can be written in
the first person as well as the third person.

Traditional prose writing is highly linear—one thing or idea follows after another in a more or less logical
sequence, as in a line. Stream of consciousness is often non-linear in a few key ways that define the style:
it makes use of unusual syntax and grammar, repetition, and plot structure.

Syntax and grammar: Stream of consciousness writing does not usually follow ordinary rules of grammar
and syntax (or word order). This is because thoughts are often not fully formed, or they change course in
the middle and become "run-on sentences," or they are interrupted by another thought.

Additionally, writers of stream of consciousness often use punctuation in unconventional ways (in can be
italics, ellipses, dashes, and line breaks to indicate pauses and shifts in the character's train of thought).

Association: In this style of writing, writers transition between ideas using loose connections that are often
based on a character's personal experiences and memories. The technique helps writers convey the
experience of human thought more accurately than they could by using a series of ideas connected with
clear, logical transitions.

Repetition: Writers might use repetition to indicate that the character keeps coming back to a certain
thought or sensory impression. Repeated words and phrases can act as a sign posts, pointing readers
towards significant themes.
Plot structure: Many writers who use stream of consciousness also experiment with structure,
incorporating elements like multiple narrators or a nonlinear plot structure (i.e., one that moves forward
and backward in time).

The novel Mrs. Dalloway follows the thoughts, experiences, and memories of several characters on a single
day in London. FOR EXAMPLE, in this passage, the title character, Clarissa Dalloway, watches cars driving by:

- “She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and
alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day. Not that
she thought herself clever, or much out of the ordinary.”

Woolf does more than simply say "Mrs. Dalloway watched the taxis and thought about her life." Rather,
she lets the reader into the character's thoughts by using long sentences with semicolons to show this
slow drift of ideas and the transitions between thoughts. Readers are able to watch as Mrs. Dalloway's
mind moves from observations about things she is seeing to reflections on her general attitude towards
life, and then moves on to memories from her childhood, then back to the taxi cabs in the street, and
finally to Peter, a who was her romantic interest.

I see it as an excellent example of using associative leaps and sensory impressions to create a stream of
consciousness. Woolf manages to convey not only the content but the structure and process of Mrs.
Dalloway's thoughts, a fact what is the most impressive is that she still does so while writing in the third
person.

4. Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway

I would call Clarissa Dalloway is the most interesting character in this book. He way she walk through
London, from which she has to retreat into her bedroom , as she said about it

- 'feeling [...] shrivelled, [and] aged',

reveals her Sensitive and weak personality. We see that she does not know if she has made the right
decisions in the past, and therefore she confesses to the readers difficulties with her gender identity.

FOR INSTANCE, it is shown that her marriage is not really happy, although she can always trust her
husband's loyalty towards her. Virginia Woolf herself said that (cited in Bradbury,) 'all human relations
have shifted - those between [...] husbands and wives, parents and children'.

AND AGAIN - Although the relationship between Clarissa and her husband seems quite traditional, if
we try not to take into account her homosexual feelings towards other women, STILL this change in
gender roles becomes obvious in her relationship with her daughter Elizabeth. I mean that probabply
Mrs Dalloway just often compare her private life with public social life too often.