Virginia Woolf Features of her novels Marks important

Virginia Woolf

Features of her novels Marks important step in development of novel Emphasis on subjective internal lives, not on external events, events not important in themselves but impressions they made on the characters who experienced them was important. This involved revolution in narrative technique : shifted point of view inside her characters’minds Abandonment of another convention of novel: chronological ordering of events Therefore her novels involve constant shifting backwards and forwards in time according to sensations and recollections aroused in characters by events they are experiencing. Two levels of narration: 1)external events arranged in chronological order 2)flux of thoughts arranged according to associations of ideas. All her novels rely on flimsy plots, focusing on internal thoughts, feelings and reactions. They follow the random associations of ideas as they come up.

Main events in her life Born in London in 1882 into a very well educated family, grew up in highly cultural backgound. her mother died when she was 13. Soon after 1 st of series of nervous breakdownaffected her all her life. Founded close circle of intellectuals, known as The Bloomsbury Group. 1912 married member of the group, the writer Leonard Woolf. 1913 after completing 1 st novel “A Voyage out” attempted suicide. With her husband she set up the Hoghart Press which published some of the most interesting literature of the time. 1925 Mrs Dalloway 1 st successful modernist novel, one of most popular and accessible. Developed her experimentation in “To the Lighthouse” 1927, The Waves 1931, The years 1937, Between the Acts 1941, Orlando 1928. The first world war had negative effects on her mental health, the second world war completely destroyed her nervous system and mental balance. 1941 after another nervous breakdown, fearing she was going to become completely mad, she drowned herself.

Stylistic features Thoughts and feelings are connected without apparent logical sequence, although their syntactic structure remains well-formed. Her prose is broken by semicolons, dashes, exclamation marks to convey the typical way of building the sentence as it develops in the mind.