...philosophers like William James and Henri Bergson came up with theories, which opposed the idea of time as an objective reality. According to them, time is never objective because it always depends on private experience of an individual. They claimed that time, like human consciousness, cannot be seen as linear, moving from one moment to the next, because time in human mind changes constatntly. It moves without any logic or reason from present to past and future. Simply, in our mind past, present and future can be experienced at the same moment. In his theory of duration, Henri Bergson explains that there are two times: private, or internal time, which is the real authentic time, and standard, public or clock time, which is, in fact, a mere social, artificial construct.[1] Modernist writers, such as James Joyce or Virginia Woolf were fascinated by the theories of time, which influenced greatly their works. In Mrs Dalloway, (1925), which may be considered 'the first important work of the literary period initiated by Ulysses'[2], Woolf is concerned with both, public and private time. In Mrs Dalloway, the public, or the clock time, is represented by the striking of Big Ben, the symbol of England and the precise time. The striking of the hours is repeated throughout the novel as a reminder of time, which restricts the lives of the characters, reminding them constantly of the time and their life passing, of their mortality. Clarsissa Dalloway and Peter Walsh are in their middle...
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...11th April, 2013 The Truth Behind The Fiction; Virginia Woolf’s Thoughts The strive for gender equality did not just begin when women decided to take up their pitchforks and sticks in contest at some town square somewhere in an European village; the expression of desire for a society of androgynous minds began in much subtler forms such as writing. Simply putting down in ink how one felt or perceived the world in the old days was all a woman could do, at least, without prosecution, if she had any “money and a room of her own” (Woolf 21). Perhaps that was what Virginia Woolf had been thinking whilst writing her book, A Room of One’s Own (1929). Woolf wrote her books in a time where only men deserved to be scholars, have respectable jobs, titles and earn reasonable amounts of money, whereas women would take up meager jobs and earn little or no money; thus limiting the public voice they had to express themselves. She therefore tried to leave a legacy or sort of encouragement for women who despite these unfortunate circumstances, wished to express themselves in a scholarly manner such as writing. By stating that a woman needed money, “five hundred a year”, and a room of her own (Woolf 21&40), Woolf simply implied empowerment and privacy; as the former was that which women greatly lacked and the latter was an abode in which one could peacefully, without restrictions or disturbances, express the mind as well as the soul. Woolf kept from making a definite conclusion that would...
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...Virginia’s London Complex in Mrs. Dalloway Fang Yuling Introduction Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), an experimental novelist, critic and essayist of the 20th century, has been regarded as a major modernist writer, whose great contribution to the innovative techniques is undeniable. Susan squire once said: “Whether she thought it "the most beautiful place on the face of the earth" or "the very devil," to Virginia Woolf the city of London was the focus for an intense, often ambivalent, lifelong scrutiny.” (488) Ever since Woolf was born in London in 1882, not only did she make her home there for nearly all of her fifty-nine years-first in the narrow streets of Kensington and then in the spacious square of Bloomsbury-but she found it a powerfully evocative figure in the literary tradition within which she wrote. In her novel Mrs. Dalloway, we can clearly see that Woolf elaborately arranges Clarissa Dalloway’s one-day life in the City of London. By a simple description of Mrs. Dalloway’s buying flower for an evening party, the reader has been actually taken around London, a city etched in Woolf’s memory. Woolf makes repeated mention of the landmarks or detailed street names in the City of London such as Oxford Street, Bond Street, the Regent’s Park, St. James Street, the Abbey, and the Big Ben, which are all quite familiar to readers. This article is attempting to, under the guidance of the cultural symbol of London itself and several major landmarks in the novel, figure out Woolf's...
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... A Y VIRGINIA WOOLF IN IRELAND: A SHORT VOYAGE OUT by Kathryn Laing o, it wouldnt do living in Ireland, in spite of the rocks & the desolate bays. It would lower the pulse of the heart: & all one’s mind wd. run out in talk” (Diary 4: 216)–so Woolf declared in her diary during her one and only journey around Ireland in May 1934. For her descriptions of the landscape and the people she met (mainly the Anglo-Irish gentry) are as ambivalent as her now infamous reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses. But Woolf’s response to Ireland, and more particularly to Irish writing is only part of the story. As a contemporary, how was Woolf read in Ireland, if she was read at all, and what, if any, impact has she had on Irish writing? For the contemplation of “Virginia Woolf in Ireland,” both as a traveler and a reader of Irish culture, politics and literature, and as someone to be read through her various publications, provokes a proliferation of research possibilities about both writer and country. In this essay I wish to sketch out a preliminary map of these possibilities, showing some of the potentially complex and intriguing routes that require further exploration, in relation to Woolf studies, in particular the European Reception of Woolf, and in relation to Ireland and its own literary history. So the paper is divided into three sections: briefly, Virginia Woolf literally in Ireland, reading Virginia Woolf in Ireland from the 1920s on, and three Irish women reading Woolf–Elizabeth Bowen...
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...opportunities are always limited for them and ideas of their importance in the society are diminishing. Even though women gained some independence, where women can work and take various position in society, the society’s idea of typical role of women never seem to change. Just a few decades ago, women, before their marriage they were taught how to be a good housewife. They didn’t have any opportunity to receive proper education. They became housewives after they were married and had no important role in the society as women. Women lived her whole life as a hard working housewife from the very ancient time. Back in the 16th or 17th century, the opportunities for women were very limited than today and the only thing that women could do were to become housewives. People were very conservative to the idea of the traditional role of a man and a woman. Women’s position in early society Women in ancient Rome The Romans believed that all women should be under the control of a guardian, who might be the father, husband, or a male relative, or someone appointed by the will of the father or husband, or by an official of the state. The only exceptions up until the time of Augustus were the six vestal virgins; after Augustus the rule was relaxed in cases of freeborn women who had had three children and freedwomen who had had four, provided that there was no husband or father to exercise control. It was customary for marriages to...
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...Perception is Reality in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway Although the entire novel tells of only one day, Virginia Woolf covers a lifetime in her enlightening novel of the mystery of the human personality. The delicate Clarissa Dalloway, a disciplined English lady, provides the perfect contrast to Septimus Warren Smith, an insane ex-soldier living in chaos. Even though the two never meet, these two correspond in that they strive to maintain possession of themselves, of their souls. On this Wednesday in June of 1923, as Clarissa prepares for her party that night, events during the day trigger memories and recollections of her past, and Woolf offers these bits to the reader, who must then form the psychological and emotional make-up of Mrs. Dalloway in his/her own mind. The reader also learns of Clarissa Dalloway through the thoughts of other characters, such as her old passion Peter Walsh, her husband Richard, and her daughter Elizabeth. Septimus Warren Smith, driven insane by witnessing the death of his friend in the war, acts as Clarissa's societal antithesis; however, the reader learns that they often are more similar than different. Thus, Virginia Woolf examines the human personality in two distinct methods: she observes that different aspects of one's personality emerge in front of different people; also, she analyzes how the appearance of a person and the reality of that person diverge. By offering the personality in all its varying forms, Woolf demonstrates the compound...
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...The Representation of Gender in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex by Marte Rognstad A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages University of Oslo In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the MA Degree Spring Term 2012 Marte Rognstad The Representation of Gender in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex Marte Rognstad http://www.duo.uio.no Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo Abstract This thesis presents an exploration of the representation of gender in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex mainly in light of the theories of Judith Butler. The focus will be on how the two novels challenge the traditional concept of gender and gender categories, and in what ways the novels can give us new perspectives on the concept of gender. The theoretical focus will be on Judith Butler, more precisely her idea of gender as performance, and her deconstructionist approach to identity categories. I will present Butler’s proposal for a “new feminist genealogy,” and through my investigation of the representation of gender in Orlando and Middlesex I will show how both novels take on a “Butlerian” understanding of the concept of gender. By looking at various issues related to gender explored in the two novels, and pointing to similarities and differences between the two works, I hope to show how the protagonists, Orlando and Cal/lie, break down and transcend the fraught...
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...Rhetorical Strategies: How They Enhance the Essay Today, rhetorical strategies are ubiquitous. They can be discovered in the latest top box office cinematic movie, the beloved binge-watched television show on Netflix, the aggravating commercials we are forced to sit through, the latest best-selling book, etc. Applying rhetorical strategies helps the writer communicate with ease and fluidity. Rhetoric additionally helps the reader or viewer gain interest while making it pleasurable. All in all, rhetorical strategies are simply ways of effectively and adequately presenting material. In the essays of discussion the effectiveness of how imagery, emotional appeal and tone build the writers credibility and enhance the essay will be discovered. For example, Virginia Woolf uses rhetorical strategies in “The Death of The Moth”. Woolf begins by using imagery effectively throughout her essay by strategically incorporating descriptive details. Woolf encountered this moth in the day time, so she begins her essay by stating, “moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths . . .” (para. 1). This statement spikes wonder; what does that mean? She explains that moths in the day “ . . . do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow-underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us” (Woolf para. 1). Her sense of imagery is full of color and expression which helps her credibility in her writing. It truly makes...
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...morally by educating them to acknowledge the value of life and to change their perspectives. In “Shooting the Elephant”, George Orwell describes a time where he sensed a moment of injustice surfacing in his life. George was hated by large numbers of people, because of who he was and his authority over the Burmese people. To avoid looking like a fool in front of the Burmese Indians, Orwell shot an elephant while hundreds of Burmese watched from behind him. Orwell repeats many times throughout the story that he “simply did not want to shoot the elephant” but yet he still did because the pressure of the thousands of Burmese standing behind him. After the elephant’s death, George feels nothing but guilt but tries to relieve his shame by stating “besides, legally I had done the right thing”. And in the end Orwell states that he “could not stand it any longer and went away”, Orwell tries to avoid his guilt by simply walking away finding it unbearable to watch it die, and then says he “legally” had done the right thing. “Death of a Moth” by Virginia Woolf describes her thoughts of when she was observing a moth’s death. Woolf’s thoughts turn an insignificant moths death into a whole new perspective of what death really symbolizes. Woolf quotes, “One could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by these tiny legs…” which reveals Woolf’s fascination of the aspect of life and death. The significance of this story reveals how all of death is the same, whether we are humans or insignificant...
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...women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first necessary to provide a comprehensive analysis of the historical evolution of women in the criminal justice system and the affect that the different waves of feminism have had on policies and practices towards women in this system. I plan to argue that the criminal justice system is another form of patriarchal control, a sexist organization which creates conflict between the private sphere of a woman's life and the public. This control extends far beyond the just incarcerated women, it affects all women. Despite the fact that there have been changes to certain policies and prison regulations, though made with resistance, none of the changes have been for the better. By looking at past and present situations as well as the differing feminist perspectives on the justice system, I hope to offer ways and opinions on how to improve this system and allow women to equally balance their life in the public sphere as well as their life in the private...
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...Readers Response to the Change in Ontological Levels in Metafiction In works of metafiction, literary works address the devices of fiction to uncover the fictional illusion. Sometimes these works have a voice interacting within the world or review a contemplation of thought. Some works utilize different scenarios to emphasize metafiction such as; a reader reading a literary work, an author writing a literary work, or a narrator intentionally exposing him or herself as the author of the story. These works could also address the specific conventions of story, such as title, character conventions, paragraphing or plots. The various ways of creating a metafictional work is meant to capture the reader by making them aware that the story being told is made up, preventing a connection to their reality. One must question how do readers respond to the metafictional work? Can this response change when a different media is being used? These questions must be evaluated first in order for the metafictional to be comprehended in the second reaction. After the reader has had time to pose certain questions it will help them understand the work of leiterature. Using reader’s reactions to Beckett’s “A Text for Nothing, Number 4,” “The Magic Poker” by Robert Coover and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando , we can evaluate the responses to these works and acceptance of the evident fictional world. In the first round of reading Samuel Beckett’s “A Text for Nothing, Number 4,” the reader might start off with...
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...Individuality, freedom and responsibility are some of the most important words in modern society. We all have the right to liberty - to express overselfs - but with freedom comes responsibility. Every individual needs to take responsibility for his or her own life. You have to struggle with the choices you have taken or will take. This way of living life in a modern society is depicted in the short story A Gap of Sky. The story is about the young, nineteen year old girl Ellie, who lives in London. She deals with an environment full of temptations as drugs and alcohol - but she definetly feels the freedom of todays society, especially in the big citites. The main character in the short story is 19 year old Ellie, as mentioned in the beginning of the essay. She lives alone in appartment in London. This means has the responsebility for her own life now. She has been send here by her parents to study at UCL. Ellie has her own way of living life and that is by staying until late. When she is at a party drink a lot, but she also uses drugs. This might be some way of dealing with her loneliness, but she faces the reality when she wakes up the morning or in her case the afternoon after. It seems as Ellie might think it is difficult to find the whole meaning of life, but she is surrounding by things in the big city who leads her on to an answer on that question. A Gap of Sky is told by a third-person narrator, which means the reader has the oppotunity to know a little about...
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...Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger Reading guide About the Book Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cosy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ... but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t seem to quite leave her flat.... With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, Her Fearful Symmetry is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. Reviews for The Time Traveler’s Wife ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of those books where you read the first paragraph and you’re hooked – unmissable’ Irish Independent ‘Henry’s journeys back and forth are by turns slapstick noir and unbearably poignant, and Clare’s child and teen narrations disturbingly pitch-perfect. Philosophical speculation occurs in the most unlikely devices and...
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...Whether or not to teach feminism at school is a very controversial issue at the present time. According to the report by Dr Jessica Ringrose(2008), she has been made the rounds and instituted on Education in UK recently, suggesting that feminism should be taught in schools to arise the increased sexualization of girls in the media and to give girls role models outside of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Ringrose(2008) suggests teaching girls about historic feminist leaders, like suffragists, to balance out all the myth that they’re assimilating through pop culture. By teaching feminism to younger girls, it is better for off showing girls what sort of feminist action is happening right now. In order to empower young women, the schools need to teach them about women’s accomplishments through history, and need to explore teaching methods that inspire girls to speak out and make a difference. If feminism is to mean anything to women in this generation, this is an emphasis that must shift. When it comes to feminism, the universal might associate it with necessarily militant and anti-male. Feminism is a social movement that seeks equal rights for women. It is a coalition of women in bringing issues of coequality, sexual oppression, and sex discrimination into the community. It is all about women and men acting, speaking and writing on women's issues and rights and identifying social injustice in the status quo. The term "feminism" first appeared in UK in the...
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...Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1775-1817) Nationality: British; English [(essay date 1988) _In the following essay, Brownstein focuses on several of Austen's novels, including Pride and Prejudice, to support her argument that Austen uses irony to convey a "discursive authority" from which women can derive pleasure in a patriarchal society.] It is a truth universally acknowledged, right now, that language is involved in giving and taking both power and pleasure. Whether we begin by asking if the pen is a substitute for the penis, or think about why we read stories of love and adventure, or consider, from any point of view, pornography or psychoanalysis, we end by analyzing ways people please themselves and assert authority over others by using words. (To observe that critics writing about pleasure and power have managed to get what measure of the good stuff they can is to state the merely inevitable.) Claiming that women writers are powerful--i.e. effective and influential--has been a focus of feminist critics concerned to dispute the canon, to rehabilitate forgotten writers, and to revise women's relation to the languages of power. That Jane Austen, unforgotten, canonized, and stunningly authoritative, has been a problem for feminists is not surprising: in the struggle for power between politically radical and conservative critics, she has for years been claimed by both parties. Her own interest in power is suggested as her uses of the word acknowledge there are...
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