Startseite Literaturwissenschaften 29 Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), The Years (1937) and Three Guineas (1938)
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29 Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), The Years (1937) and Three Guineas (1938)

  • Marlene A. Briggs
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Handbook of British Literature and Culture of the First World War
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Handbook of British Literature and Culture of the First World War

Abstract

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) revisited the First World War throughout her illustrious career. She wrote about its events and legacies in diaries, essays, letters, reviews, and works of fiction including Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Years (1937). Her critical meditations on the patriarchal basis of militaristic societies culminate in Three Guineas (1938), a book that decries the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) even as it looks back to British involvement in 1914- 1918. This artful polemic elaborates on interrelationships between the public and the private spheres, a core feminist assumption that stimulates her multifarious investigations of war, its causes and effects, and the possible means of its prevention. In her imaginative efforts to reconfigure local and global hostilities, Woolf often disrupts conventional ideas of duration and scale. She conceives of conflict as a historical and transhistorical phenomenon implicated in both geological and ideological processes, attending to the recurrence of martial contests, the proliferation of modern technologies, and the transformation of natural elements. As such, her oeuvre has attracted sustained interest from scholars of gender, modernism, and violence since the 1990s, some of whom have traced productive points of intersection between Woolf’s experimental writings and the theoretical discourse of American philosopher Judith Butler in the twenty-first century. Notable in this discussion is Mrs. Dalloway, perhaps Woolf’s most trenchant and wide-ranging exploration of the institutional and interpersonal ramifications of the First World War. Through the oblique encounter between Septimus Smith, a traumatized ex-combatant, and Clarissa Dalloway, a wellto- do socialite, Woolf raises fundamental questions about the possibilities and limits of empathy in a post-war pairing of a veteran and a civilian characterized by common vulnerabilities and differential privileges. This novel renowned for its use of free indirect style has inspired a voluminous critical literature, as well as a cinematic adaptation, Mrs. Dalloway (1997), by Dutch director Marleen Gorris, and a contemporary fiction, Saturday (2005), by British author Ian McEwan, set before the invasion of Iraq (2003-2011), evidence of the timely appeal of Woolf’s narrative as well as the sociopolitical resonance of the First World War.

Abstract

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) revisited the First World War throughout her illustrious career. She wrote about its events and legacies in diaries, essays, letters, reviews, and works of fiction including Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Years (1937). Her critical meditations on the patriarchal basis of militaristic societies culminate in Three Guineas (1938), a book that decries the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) even as it looks back to British involvement in 1914- 1918. This artful polemic elaborates on interrelationships between the public and the private spheres, a core feminist assumption that stimulates her multifarious investigations of war, its causes and effects, and the possible means of its prevention. In her imaginative efforts to reconfigure local and global hostilities, Woolf often disrupts conventional ideas of duration and scale. She conceives of conflict as a historical and transhistorical phenomenon implicated in both geological and ideological processes, attending to the recurrence of martial contests, the proliferation of modern technologies, and the transformation of natural elements. As such, her oeuvre has attracted sustained interest from scholars of gender, modernism, and violence since the 1990s, some of whom have traced productive points of intersection between Woolf’s experimental writings and the theoretical discourse of American philosopher Judith Butler in the twenty-first century. Notable in this discussion is Mrs. Dalloway, perhaps Woolf’s most trenchant and wide-ranging exploration of the institutional and interpersonal ramifications of the First World War. Through the oblique encounter between Septimus Smith, a traumatized ex-combatant, and Clarissa Dalloway, a wellto- do socialite, Woolf raises fundamental questions about the possibilities and limits of empathy in a post-war pairing of a veteran and a civilian characterized by common vulnerabilities and differential privileges. This novel renowned for its use of free indirect style has inspired a voluminous critical literature, as well as a cinematic adaptation, Mrs. Dalloway (1997), by Dutch director Marleen Gorris, and a contemporary fiction, Saturday (2005), by British author Ian McEwan, set before the invasion of Iraq (2003-2011), evidence of the timely appeal of Woolf’s narrative as well as the sociopolitical resonance of the First World War.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Preface VII
  4. Contents IX
  5. 0 Introduction 1
  6. Part I: Systematic Questions: Genres and Perspectives
  7. 1 The First World War in Poetry 37
  8. 2 Autobiographical Writing and the First World War 65
  9. 3 The Novel of the First World War 87
  10. 4 The Short Story of the First World War 103
  11. 5 The First World War in British Narrative Film and Television: From Visual Archive to Filmic Imagination 117
  12. 6 Gendering the First World War: Masculinity and Femininity in First World War Literary and Cultural Production 147
  13. 7 Indian Writings of the First World War 167
  14. Part II: Close Readings
  15. 8 Richard Aldington, Images of War (1919) and Death of a Hero (1929) 183
  16. 9 Enid Bagnold, A Diary Without Dates (1918) and The Happy Foreigner (1920) 197
  17. 10 Arnold Bennett, The Pretty Lady (1918) 205
  18. 11 Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War (1928) and War Poetry 215
  19. 12 Mary Borden, The Forbidden Zone (1929) and Sarah Gay (1931) 231
  20. 13 Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth (1933) 241
  21. 14 Ford Madox Ford, Parade’s End (tetralogy, 1924–1928) 253
  22. 15 Robert Graves, War Poetry and Goodbye To all That (1929) 267
  23. 16 Ivor Gurney, War Poetry 281
  24. 17 Thomas Hardy, War Poetry 291
  25. 18 Storm Jameson, That Was Yesterday (1932) and Mirror in Darkness (1934–1936) 307
  26. 19 David Jones, In Parenthesis (1937) 323
  27. 20 Rudyard Kipling, Poetry and Short Stories of the First World War 337
  28. 21 Vernon Lee, Satan the Waster (1920) and Peace with Honour (1915) 349
  29. 22 Rose Macaulay, Non-Combatants and Others (1916) and Other War Writings 371
  30. 23 Wilfred Owen, War Poetry 381
  31. 24 Ernest Raymond, Tell England (1922) and Other Writings 397
  32. 25 Isaac Rosenberg, War Poetry 407
  33. 26 Siegfried Sassoon, War Poems (1919) and The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (1937) 423
  34. 27 R.C. Sherriff, Journey’s End (1928) 435
  35. 28 May Sinclair, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium (1915), War Poetry and Fiction 445
  36. 29 Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), The Years (1937) and Three Guineas (1938) 459
  37. 30 Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop, Oh What a Lovely War (1963) 483
  38. 31 Susan Hill, Strange Meeting (1971) 491
  39. 32 Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War (1993) 499
  40. Index of Subjects 507
  41. Index of Names 515
  42. List of Contributors 527
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110422467-030

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Preface VII
  4. Contents IX
  5. 0 Introduction 1
  6. Part I: Systematic Questions: Genres and Perspectives
  7. 1 The First World War in Poetry 37
  8. 2 Autobiographical Writing and the First World War 65
  9. 3 The Novel of the First World War 87
  10. 4 The Short Story of the First World War 103
  11. 5 The First World War in British Narrative Film and Television: From Visual Archive to Filmic Imagination 117
  12. 6 Gendering the First World War: Masculinity and Femininity in First World War Literary and Cultural Production 147
  13. 7 Indian Writings of the First World War 167
  14. Part II: Close Readings
  15. 8 Richard Aldington, Images of War (1919) and Death of a Hero (1929) 183
  16. 9 Enid Bagnold, A Diary Without Dates (1918) and The Happy Foreigner (1920) 197
  17. 10 Arnold Bennett, The Pretty Lady (1918) 205
  18. 11 Edmund Blunden, Undertones of War (1928) and War Poetry 215
  19. 12 Mary Borden, The Forbidden Zone (1929) and Sarah Gay (1931) 231
  20. 13 Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth (1933) 241
  21. 14 Ford Madox Ford, Parade’s End (tetralogy, 1924–1928) 253
  22. 15 Robert Graves, War Poetry and Goodbye To all That (1929) 267
  23. 16 Ivor Gurney, War Poetry 281
  24. 17 Thomas Hardy, War Poetry 291
  25. 18 Storm Jameson, That Was Yesterday (1932) and Mirror in Darkness (1934–1936) 307
  26. 19 David Jones, In Parenthesis (1937) 323
  27. 20 Rudyard Kipling, Poetry and Short Stories of the First World War 337
  28. 21 Vernon Lee, Satan the Waster (1920) and Peace with Honour (1915) 349
  29. 22 Rose Macaulay, Non-Combatants and Others (1916) and Other War Writings 371
  30. 23 Wilfred Owen, War Poetry 381
  31. 24 Ernest Raymond, Tell England (1922) and Other Writings 397
  32. 25 Isaac Rosenberg, War Poetry 407
  33. 26 Siegfried Sassoon, War Poems (1919) and The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston (1937) 423
  34. 27 R.C. Sherriff, Journey’s End (1928) 435
  35. 28 May Sinclair, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium (1915), War Poetry and Fiction 445
  36. 29 Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), The Years (1937) and Three Guineas (1938) 459
  37. 30 Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop, Oh What a Lovely War (1963) 483
  38. 31 Susan Hill, Strange Meeting (1971) 491
  39. 32 Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War (1993) 499
  40. Index of Subjects 507
  41. Index of Names 515
  42. List of Contributors 527
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