Virginia Woolf Biography and Literary Contribution A presentation

Virginia Woolf. Biography and Literary Contribution A presentation in English literature for the 12 -th class Created by Snezhanka Stefanova Aprilov National High School

Virginia Woolf /1882 -1941/ Virginia Woolf was a British novelist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. Her stream-of-consciousness technique and poetic style are among the most important contributions to the modern novel.

Biography • • Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London to Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Duckworth (née Jackson) (1846– 1895), she was educated by her parents in their literate and wellconnected household at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. Virginia's parents had married each other after being widowed and the household contained the children of three marriages. Sir Leslie Stephen's eminence as an editor, critic, and biographer, and his connection to William Thackeray (he was the widower of Thackeray's eldest daughter) meant that Woolf was raised in an environment filled with the influences of Victorian literary society. The sudden death of her father, when Virginia was 14, and that of her sister Stella 2 years later, led to the first of Virginia’s nervous breakdowns. The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly institutionalised.

• • • Although she was married to Leonard Woolf from 1912 until her death in 1941, some of Virginia’s strongest romantic ties were with women. In 1917 with her husband she founded the Hogarth Press which became the first to publish Sigmund Freud in English (this greatly inspired Woolf). The Hogarth Press also published T. S. Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, Maxim Gorky and all Woolf's writings. 1941: At the onset of another mental breakdown, which she feared would be permanent, Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her home leaving the following suicide note for her husband sister.

Suicide note to her husband, Leonard Sidney Woolf (18 March 1941) Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of these terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer, I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

Places of Artistic Inspiration. Pro b " The area around St. Ives was a fruitful childhood haunt for the young Virginia. The far-off vision of the Godrevy lighthouse was to come back to her as a potent literary motif in later life. as c ably n h imp ildren othing sum ortant was qu we had t hea mers in o us as ite so r brea the wa Cornw our all… sand king… ves to t o s the ; to sc dig i n th r r o a c m k ane e mon s and s ble ove thei es fl ee th r r poo anten ourish e nae ls" ing in th e

Decorated in the Bloomsbury style, its preserved interior is a unique example of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's distinctive style of decorative art in a domestic context and is the fruition of over 60 years of artistic creativity. Charleston in Firle, East Sussex has become a Mecca for anyone interested in Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set. It was acquired by Virginia's sister, Vanessa, in 1916, and became a home and meeting place for some of the most influential artists and thinkers of the day. The interior of the house is preserved just the way it was. Everywhere you look there is art, even in the bathroom.

1940: The Woolfs’ London home in Meckleburgh Square was bombed in August 1940 and their country home, Monks House in Rodmell, East Sussex, became their permanent residence. It is now a National Trust property and its preserved rooms effectively reflect the life and times of Virginia Woolf and her circle. Sissinghurst, Vita Sackville West's house and garden creation is home to the first printing press used by Woolf in the early days of the Hogarth Press.

Literary Work and Contribution • • 1905: Virginia began writing professionally for the Times Literary Supplement. At the same time she and her sister and brothers established a household in the Bloomsbury section of London, which became a gathering place for members of the London intelligentsia. Between the World Wars the Bloomsbury group inspired the trends and ideas in modern, 20 -th century thinking, philosophy and art. Virginia Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators of the English language. In the words of E. M. Foster, she “ pushed the English language a little further against the dark” , and her literary achievements and creativity are influential even today. Woolf is the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted— and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters' receptive consciousnesses. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions.

A narrative technique in non-dramatic fiction Employed literary devices v Revelation of the thoughts passing through the mind of the protagonist through: • • • v v v snatches of incoherent thoughts free association of ideas and images ungrammatical constructions self-analysis dramatised inner conflicts imagined dialogue Examination of the psychological and emotional motives of characters Almost no action, all events occur in the characters’ minds Substitution of linear narrative by a fractured one Artistic outcome v Presentation of the full richness, speed and subtlety of the human mind v. Rendering the flow of the myriad impressions-visual, auditory, physical etc. - that form the awareness of the individual along with his rational thoughts v Penetrating explorations of the workings of the human consciousness

1915 The Voyage Out 1941 Between the Acts /last work/ 1931 The Waves 1929 A Room of One’s Own 1919 Night and Day 1922 Jacob’s Room The beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. 1928 Orlando: A Biography 1923 Fresh Water /only play/ 1925 Mrs. Dalloway 1927 To the Lighthouse

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