The Female Künstlerroman in the Writing of Virginia Woolf

<p>The defining features of the female Künstlerroman in Virginia Woolf’s writing suggest a revision of the narrative form to accommodate, navigate, and interrogate the artist’s gender and origins of her creativity. This thesis plots the birth of the female artist and the conditions of her artistic development within Woolf’s writing by first examining the construction of Rachel Vinrace, the rudimentary artist of the equally embryonic text, Melymbrosia (1912-1982). Rachel’s failure to privately self-identify as an artist is contrasted with her reluctance to accept her future potential as a wife and mother, suggesting that “woman” and “artist” are two mutually exclusive identities. For this reason, Woolf’s use of the female Künstlerroman examines the complexities of the female artist’s ability and, indeed, inability to acknowledge and inhabit her creative identity. But how, exactly, the narrative form develops in Woolf’s writing relies upon a reading of the relationship between the figure of the artist and the novel she occupies: Rachel Vinrace in Melymbrosia; Lily Briscoe and Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse (1927); Orlando in Orlando: A Biography (1928); Miss La Trobe and Isa Oliver in Between the Acts (1941). Each of these works present a modification of the female Künstlerroman, and, in doing so, a markedly different artist-as-heroine. Moreover, in Woolf’s later writing, the narrative development of the female artist incorporates aspects of historical non-fiction, the biographical and autobiographical, and epistolary and essayistic fictions. An analysis of the intertextual relationship between A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Orlando: A Biography, and Three Guineas (1938) and Between the Acts, is therefore critical to the argument of this thesis. The following is an exploration of how a variety of female artist-figures are constructed within Woolf’s writing: a musician, a painter, a social artist, a poet, and a pageant-writer-director. Through Woolf’s diverse expositions on the creative process, her heroines embody the personal difficulties women encounter as they attempt to realise their artistic potential. In this way, the female Künstlerroman is used by Woolf to examine, often simultaneously, the aesthetics of failure, as well as the conditions of success. But that a multitude of creative mediums appear in Woolf’s writing suggests there are universal obstacles when the artist in question is a woman, an implication in the narrative of the female Künstlerroman that the gender of a protagonist is the primary source of complication. Therefore, the degree to which each heroine achieves a sense of creative fulfilment is dependent on her ability to recalibrate her identity as a woman with her self-authorisation as an artist.</p>

The Female Künstlerroman in the Writing of Virginia Woolf

<p>The defining features of the female Künstlerroman in Virginia Woolf’s writing suggest a revision of the narrative form to accommodate, navigate, and interrogate the artist’s gender and origins of her creativity. This thesis plots the birth of the female artist and the conditions of her artistic development within Woolf’s writing by first examining the construction of Rachel Vinrace, the rudimentary artist of the equally embryonic text, Melymbrosia (1912-1982). Rachel’s failure to privately self-identify as an artist is contrasted with her reluctance to accept her future potential as a wife and mother, suggesting that “woman” and “artist” are two mutually exclusive identities. For this reason, Woolf’s use of the female Künstlerroman examines the complexities of the female artist’s ability and, indeed, inability to acknowledge and inhabit her creative identity. But how, exactly, the narrative form develops in Woolf’s writing relies upon a reading of the relationship between the figure of the artist and the novel she occupies: Rachel Vinrace in Melymbrosia; Lily Briscoe and Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse (1927); Orlando in Orlando: A Biography (1928); Miss La Trobe and Isa Oliver in Between the Acts (1941). Each of these works present a modification of the female Künstlerroman, and, in doing so, a markedly different artist-as-heroine. Moreover, in Woolf’s later writing, the narrative development of the female artist incorporates aspects of historical non-fiction, the biographical and autobiographical, and epistolary and essayistic fictions. An analysis of the intertextual relationship between A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Orlando: A Biography, and Three Guineas (1938) and Between the Acts, is therefore critical to the argument of this thesis. The following is an exploration of how a variety of female artist-figures are constructed within Woolf’s writing: a musician, a painter, a social artist, a poet, and a pageant-writer-director. Through Woolf’s diverse expositions on the creative process, her heroines embody the personal difficulties women encounter as they attempt to realise their artistic potential. In this way, the female Künstlerroman is used by Woolf to examine, often simultaneously, the aesthetics of failure, as well as the conditions of success. But that a multitude of creative mediums appear in Woolf’s writing suggests there are universal obstacles when the artist in question is a woman, an implication in the narrative of the female Künstlerroman that the gender of a protagonist is the primary source of complication. Therefore, the degree to which each heroine achieves a sense of creative fulfilment is dependent on her ability to recalibrate her identity as a woman with her self-authorisation as an artist.</p>

Feminist Criticism in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel

This paper investigates the concepts of Feminism and Feminist Criticisms to identify their features in two novels; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel. The theoretical and historical backgrounds of Feminism and the other Feminist Criticisms are presented according to their importance. The paper then introduces the two novels by presenting their plot summary. This paper tries to answer how two prominent writers, one British and one Kurdish, discuss women issues. The author wants to investigate whether both writers’ cultural upbringing and social background affect the way they present women in their respective novels. Through quotations taken from the novels, one learns about the writers’ ideas regarding women’s issues; economic, social, psychological, and political. In conclusion, the present study argues that women’s experiences in English society and Kurdish society have many similarities; however, despite the many similarities, there lay differences regarding the attitudes of both writers towards women issues and representation. For instance, Wood presents an ideal female character to oppose women’s traditional roles in society in her novel. On the other hand, Ahmed paints vivid imagery of what women go through without solid women characters. Thus, this paper hopes to provide future students and researchers with helpful material on Feminism, Feminist Criticisms, and the analysis of both novels, especially the Kurdish one, since research is scarce on it.

Generic images, gendered responses: Virginia Woolf and the representation of belligerent violence

In Three Guineas (1938), Virginia Woolf voluntarily discusses images of the Spanish Civil War in generic terms. Susan Sontag famously criticized Woolf’s position, claiming that her decision to generalize ‘dismisses politics’, preventing the adoption of a clear anti-fascist stand on the Spanish conflict. I argue, on the contrary, that Woolf’s recourse to the generic turns the spotlight away from the Spanish front in order to make a very political point about the violence of patriarchy that structures the British viewers’ own society. Woolf does this by highlighting the role gendered experiences of the past play in shaping the viewer’s present perception of, and affective reactions to, images of warfare. This allows readers of Woolf’s fiction to more clearly identify the feminist thrust of her depictions of World War I’s impact on the domestic sphere in her novels of the 1920s, To the Lighthouse in particular.

Feminist Criticism in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel

This paper investigates the concepts of Feminism and Feminist Criticisms to identify their features in two novels; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel. The theoretical and historical backgrounds of Feminism and the other Feminist Criticisms are presented according to their importance. The paper then introduces the two novels by presenting their plot summary. This paper tries to answer how two prominent writers, one British and one Kurdish, discuss women issues. The author wants to investigate whether both writers’ cultural upbringing and social background affect the way they present women in their respective novels. Through quotations taken from the novels, one learns about the writers’ ideas regarding women’s issues; economic, social, psychological, and political. In conclusion, the present study argues that women’s experiences in English society and Kurdish society have many similarities; however, despite the many similarities, there lay differences regarding the attitudes of both writers towards women issues and representation. For instance, Wood presents an ideal female character to oppose women’s traditional roles in society in her novel. On the other hand, Ahmed paints vivid imagery of what women go through without solid women characters. Thus, this paper hopes to provide future students and researchers with helpful material on Feminism, Feminist Criticisms, and the analysis of both novels, especially the Kurdish one, since research is scarce on it.

A Preliminary Survey of the Eastern Harbor, Alexandria, Egypt, Including a Comparison of Side Scan Sonar and Remote Viewing

This paper reports a preliminary survey of one of humanity's most historic harbors--Alexandria, Egypt. It constitutes one phase of a broader joint land/sea examination of the largest and most famous city to bear Alexander the Great's name. The research overall had two goals: 1) to resolve locational uncertainties concerning the city's past configuration, particularly its Ptolemaic antecedents; and 2) to compare electronic remote sensing survey technologies with Remote Viewing generally, and the applications methodology developed by the Mobius Groups specifically. In the area of the Eastern Harbor, the aim of the research was: 1) the location of the ancient shore line; the locaton of and predictive description of several sites including the island of Antirrhodus and the Emporium/Poseidium/Timonium complex; a palace complex associated with Cleopatra; and a further elaboration, both in terms of location and predictive description, of the Pharos lighthouse area; 2) a comparison of Remote Viewing and side scan sonar data after each approach had surveyed the same area. This paper describes the probable location of the Emporium, the Poseidium, and the Timonium, the palace complex of Cleopatra, the island of Antirrhodus, a site at the tip of Fort Sisila (known prevously as Point Lochias), new discoveries pertaining to the lighthouse, andd an associated temple. The most important discovery though is the identification and location of the ancient seawall which extends some 65 meters farther out into the harbor than was previously suspected, and whoe location resolves a key piece in the puzzle of the ancient city's layout. The discoveries reported here were principally the result of Remote Viewing. Except for one clear "hit," side scan sonar proved unproductive because of the large amount of particulate in the water.

Biography and Autobiography

This chapter explores the centrality of biography and autobiography to Woolf’s reading and writing life, and to her cultural milieu, in which experiments in life-writing were a crucial aspect of the modernist reaction against the Victorian era. It examines Woolf’s deep engagement in her fiction with life-writing forms, from the bildungsroman of The Voyage Out to the play with conventional biographical forms of Jacob’s Room, Orlando, The Waves, and Flush and the autobiographical foundations of To the Lighthouse. It also examines her biography of Roger Fry, and her own experiment in memoir-writing, the posthumously published ‘A Sketch of the Past’, in the context of concerns with the nature of memory, identity, and sexuality.

Mature Works I (1924–1927)

Between 1924 and 1927 Woolf was at an apex of her career, publishing some of her best-known works, including Mrs Dalloway (1925), The Common Reader (1925), and To the Lighthouse (1927). She also wrote prolific letters, diary entries, short stories, and essays whose co-extensiveness with her major work remains to be fully scrutinized. This chapter considers some the connections, traces, and shared themes across these multiple genres of Woolf’s writing to argue that Woolf consistently emphasizes (1) literature as a vehicle of ethics that changes us as we read; (2) the necessity of breaking with formal literary conventions in order to render the ambivalences and uncertain ontological and psychological terrain of modernist ‘truth(s);’ (3) poetry as both the highest form of literary art and as way of being that traverses her characters; (4) a duty to render, despite her atheism, what she persistently calls ‘the soul’.

Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Virginia Woolf’s work responds not only to her extensive reading of literature, but also to debates about visual art circulating within her intellectual circle: her friend Roger Fry introduced ‘Post-Impressionism’ to England; her sister Vanessa Bell and Bell’s lover Duncan Grant were both painters. From early stories like ‘Kew Gardens’ through major novels like To the Lighthouse, Woolf conceived the task of fiction in terms that address the premises of Impressionist painting and literature and Post-Impressionist painting. Her 1925 essay ‘Modern Fiction’ influentially argues that new fiction must register how the mind really apprehends the world: as ‘impressions—trivial, fantastic, evanescent, or engraved with the sharpness of steel … an incessant shower of innumerable atoms’. Her fiction raises questions about abstraction and form that are central to Post-Impressionist painting. This chapter provides readers with the context to see how Woolf’s writing shares aesthetic questions with contemporary art.