April 5, 2017 - Woolf continued
New, original book in style, content of its time
o Style questions readers’ assumptions
Destabilizes form
o Plot is to whom and how character perceives it
o Lacks structure as well
o Liked it, try to make sense of the world
P. 2157 “In people’s eyes… of June”
o Noisy. Contrast with hush of her house
o Also intensely private and very public book
Keats – loving, but irreconcilable separates (war and peace, public and private, etc.)
o Tensions between pairs of thigns
(momentarily) resolved at party. But it’s imperfect. Not fully resolved
difficulties with closure, offers ambiguity
Texts supports different meanings
o Human condition in flux
Theme: interconnectedness of all thngs
o Played out with image patterns, repeated words and phrases, connections between
characters
o Sane vs insane
Narrator revolutionary
o Characters don’t have deep knowledge of each other, narrator ties them for us
o Resists dominating and controlling presence
o Will let other voices through
o Wolfe doesn’t maintain precise control
o Critics find it annoying (especially in discussions of social class)
Disruptive
Integrative function
o Often free, indirect discourse
Connections with physical environment (ex. Plane, car)
o Even if they don’t know each other, or are distant
2157 “She stuffed a little… very upright.”
o Scrope Purvis – direct discourse. His thoughts.
Aware of environment around her (interconnected)
o Bird imagery associated with Clarissa
o Smooth flow into one another
2170-71 “There is a fine young feller.. by means of thought…”
o direct discourse at first, unclear where characters/narrator ends/begins
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