ENG328Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Escapism, Heteroglossia
To the Lighthouse
“All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one
shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of
darkness, something invisible to others.”
Her being and doing is other-directed but now she is being self-directed and
shrinking into her being
•
She fulfils her gender-essential role
•
“There was no treachery too base for the world to commit; she knew that. No
happiness lasted; she knew that.”
Rejecting any kind of otherworldly confidence
•
Escapism or romanticism?
But she's not making big claims, these moments are transient
○
What's underscored is the fragility and transience of these moments
○
They're redemptive in a very minimalist ways
○
•
Lily never has to marry
She is forced to act as Mrs. Ramsay with Mr. Tansley (188)
○
The many moments allowing for her to come to her recognition
○
•
No way of healing the cleavage between nature and thought
No romanticism in this - there is not god or divine in nature
○
•
Destruction of time in nature, chaos of shapelessness
Only human presence that remains is the ghost of Mrs. Ramsay
○
•
Prue and Andrew die, a war happens
•
“What power could now prevent the fertility, the insensibility of nature?”
A lot of story time and almost no discourse time in like 14-15 pages
For Lily the world is still horrible
○
Lily will finish the painting
○
The remaining family is travelling to the lighthouse
○
•
Lily is put under pressure by Mr. Ramsay this time
She points out his beautiful boots and liberates him
○
She thinks she's a failure but she does the exact indirect thing Mrs.
Ramsay would do
○
She transcends Mrs. Ramsay simply by being alive
○
Reflects that the urgency of the moment always misses the mark
○
•
For James, the lighthouse is both the present expectation and the past
disappointment
Same response now as on the second page (and if there had been an
axe handy, a knife, or anything with a sharp point he would have seized
it and struck his father through the heart)
○
But finally his father praises him for his nautical skills
○
The boat has landed, the picture is finished
○
•
As I Lay Dying
Much more experimental book in some ways
Vs. shifting focalizers in Woolf
○
•
Each of the characters speaks in the first person
Direct interior monologue
○
Focalised from the perspective of a given character
○
•
Family perspective is dominant but not all-encompassing•
Journey to Jefferson with the bodies is
Put handkerchiefs over their faces and run
○
•
We're equally challenged by the multiple points of view•
Characters completely mistaken in judgements of each other and themselves
Relationships within the family are dysfunctional
○
Mother who is the main force in the novel/holds family together only
speaks once and is dead
○
•
Whitfield represents hypocrisy and self-obsession•
Addie is both hub and battlefield•
Mood and setting continuously evoked on a grandiose scale
Oratorical language
○
•
Primitive fable of human experience
Ironic pilgrim's progress
○
•
We can't unequivocally call the Bunduuns idiotic or heroic•
We can't identify with any of the characters
Too many monologues
○
•
Archetypal story - Solomon•
Interior monologues give us limited perspectives about what the journey
means
•
3 levels of diction
Realistic dialect
○
More formal diction - with educated speakers - imitation of
consciousness
○
Poetic imagistic language - unconscious thought
○
•
Author only intervenes to let us know what's going on in the character's
minds
Objective re-creator of subjectivity
○
Authorial voice will sometimes augment and intensify the subjectivity
of the characters but never go outside it
○
Giving articulate voice to characters that are not as capable
○
•
Heteroglossia - multiple registers of language within a single text•
Polyglossia - within multiple languages•
Voice and character usually collaborate
In moments when mimetic voice breaks down, character emerges
(Stephen)
○
•
Lecture 25
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
1:15 PM
Document Summary
All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. Her being and doing is other-directed but now she is being self-directed and shrinking into her being. There was no treachery too base for the world to commit; she knew that. But she"s not making big claims, these moments are transient. What"s underscored is the fragility and transience of these moments. She is forced to act as mrs. ramsay with mr. tansley (188) The many moments allowing for her to come to her recognition. No way of healing the cleavage between nature and thought. No romanticism in this - there is not god or divine in nature. Destruction of time in nature, chaos of shapelessness. Only human presence that remains is the ghost of mrs. ramsay. What power could now prevent the fertility, the insensibility of nature? .
