Bevezetés 1 Problémafelvetés: a harmincas évek a woolfi életműben 1 Tézis: kulturális reflektálts... more Bevezetés 1 Problémafelvetés: a harmincas évek a woolfi életműben 1 Tézis: kulturális reflektáltság a harmincas évekbeli szövegekben 4 Kritikai kontextus, elmélet és módszer: recepció, kultúrszemiotika és szoros olvasat 7 Szövegelemzések: másság és azonosság 11 Fogadtatás: a harmincas évektől, a harmincas évekről 17 Woolf, a (női) modernista 18 Woolf, a női modernista 33 Woolf a harmincas években 50 Közelítés: elméleti-kritikai kaleidoszkóp 55 A (női)szerző-központú monográfia "a szerző halála" után 61 Határvidék: irodalomtudomány, kritikai kultúrakutatás, a társadalmi nemek kritikai vizsgálata 70 Mezők viszonya: modernizmus, női modernizmus és a harmincas évek 80 Intertextualitás mint kulturális emlékezet 91 Kaleidoszkóp-reflexió 104 Változatok a viktoriánus fedőtörténetre: Flush 106 Vicc vagy komoly allegória 111 Kezdet és eredet: retorikai trouvaille 118 A viktoriánus élet rajza: a Mitford-család mint mise-en-abyme 125 A viktoriánus életrajz 134 A viktoriánus (szoba)belső 143 Kulturális-narratív terek: Az évek 155 Keret és közjáték 162 Családregény a klubban 172 Családregény a nappaliban 190 Az esszé mint a kritikai beszéd tere: Három adomány 206 A Három adomány mint "dühös" szöveg 211 A beszélő mint kulturális disszidens 224 A levelező nő mint diszkurzív szubjektum 229 "Hazátlan gondolatok szigete"-Orwell kontra Virginia Woolf Három adománya 228 A sosem-volt Éden elvesztése: Felvonások között 252 Az idill csábítása 257 Táj és történelem 270 A szekérszínház és közönsége 285 Összegzés és nyitás: új vonalak a woolfi életműben 305
Virginia Woolf and the Problem of Autobiography~ "Life is a strip of pavement over an abyss," wro... more Virginia Woolf and the Problem of Autobiography~ "Life is a strip of pavement over an abyss," wrote Virginia Woolf into her diary in October 1920. 1 In this paper I will examine how this statement functions in Woolf's late autobiographical writing, "A Sketch of the Past," left unfinished two months before her suicide. My approach to the text will be twofold: on the one hand I will make an attempt to point out how the text deconstructs itself as autobiography yet desperately insists on constructing a unified self, on the other hand I will consider it in terms of autobiographies, i.e. how the text is inscribed and defined by all those discourses (and my primary focus here will be the genre of autobiography) that create the autobiographical subject in the text. "A Sketch of the Past" was published posthumously in the collection of autobiographical writings entitled Moments of Being, in which texts written in different periods for different audiences are collected : an oscillation between autobiography and biography (that of Vanessa) in "Reminiscences," "A Sketch of the Past," covering basically the same period of life but written more than thirty years later; and three readings ("22 Hyde Park Gate," "Old Bloomsbury" and "Am I a Snob") given, within a span of fifteen years, to a circle of close friends, the Memoir Club. These texts are thus diverse both in their date of origin, their assumed audience or readership and their choice of autobiographical form. Yet, this is not the single reason why I have avoided so far the term autobiography, I did so because in the argument I will rely on the concept that no writing, not even the •This essay is a revised and substantially extended version of a paper given at the Conference of English and Am erican Studies in Timisoara, Romania in 1996 and published in the 1997 issue of B.A.S., Timisoara. 1 Bell (ed)., The Diary of Virginia Woolf !I. p. 72. Henceforth abbreviated as DVW the distinction between fiction and non-fiction and deconstructs the apparent relation between the self and its textual embodiment [and] autobiography is not seen as produced by a pre-existent self but as producing a provisional and contingent one. 5 The same position is proposed by Paul de Man in his essay "Autobiography as De-Facement," where he argues that autobiography is 2 Couser, Altered Egos. p. 23 3 /bid. p. 14 4 /bid. p. 18 10 Gilmore, Autobiographies. p. 42
evoke some response from her environment, even though it can last just for a short time, until Mr... more evoke some response from her environment, even though it can last just for a short time, until Mrs Reed's appearance, who says: "it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you. [...] Silence! This violence is all most repulsive" (Brontë, 1992:14). Mrs Reed's conditions of Jane's liberation make the nature of her "violence" evident: Jane's voice and speech are unbearable aggression, her "liberation," thus, can come about only within the framework of Mrs Reed's narratives, at the expense of perfect submission, total self-annihilation and obedience. The only response Jane can give is through her body again: she has "a species of fit: unconsciousness close[s] the scene" (Brontë, 1992:14), that is she loses conscious control of herself, and psychic symptoms are replaced by somatic ones. She does fall ill, and through her voiceless voice she exacts a new communicative situation from her environment: Bessie at least takes some care of her, so in a way she attains the centre of attention-the unconscious aim of so many Victorian women's psychosomatic diseases-and thus gets to a certain extent reintegrated into the household and the family. While recovering, however, her attitude to stories told and read out to her changes considerably: she can no longer find the sense of home either in her beloved books or in Bessie's songs-this sense of homeliness seems to be lost for ever. Yet, when this cherished volume [Gulliver's Travels] was placed in my hand-when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find-all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart. (Brontë, 1992:18) Though Gulliver's Travels cannot be directly related to Jane's story, the sudden strangeness and estrangement of the book is a sign of Jane's mode of existence: her alienation, exclusion, her incessant wanderings and search for a sense of home. The estrangement of the once favourite book is reinforced by the untouched food, which, in the context of the novel, is always a sign for the lack of love and sense of home, and, further, by Bessie's songs. Two lines of one of her songs refer to wandering about, and another song is about an orphan child who can find no home, no family, who is tossed about, who is always on the point of being lost and sunk in the marshes. Jane obviously recognises herself in this story, a possible narrative of her life, a version in which she has no power to 15 take control of her own life story. This is the reason why she feels alienated from these stories (and is yet another reason why it is highly questionable whether Bessie can really be interpreted as a good and supportive surrogate mother for Jane). Jane, however, makes an attempt at controlling her life when the apothecary, Mr Lloyd appears at her sickbed. Mr Lloyd, exceptionally, wants to hear Jane's story of her illness, not the versions of others, although Bessie wants to answer his first question and wants to interfere with her own version of Jane's illness later on as well. Jane, however, is more and more capable of giving voice to her own version even if it is not clearly articulated and thus claims for herself a narrative authority that will have an effect on the whole of her future life, since, as a result of their conversation, the apothecary advises Mrs Reed to send the girl to school. Remarkably, the apothecary marshals against Jane's basic complaint ("I cry because I am miserable" [Brontë, 1992:20]) all the counterarguments according to which Jane should be happy, content and grateful, that is, he seems to test all the narratives opposed to which Jane is to articulate her own story. This is why, on this point, I cannot agree with Carla Kaplan, who interprets the apothecary's "counterarguments" as if they reflected the apothecary's conviction, although by the end of their conversation the apothecary gives way to Jane's arguments and can clearly see what a bad state of mind she is in (cf. 1996:78-79). To my mind, Mr Lloyd is an empathetic, ideal listener, who does pay attention to Jane and her complex mode of communication: he functions as an agent provocateur, who makes Jane articulate her own story, and who can, at the same time, decipher and interpret all the signs Jane sends off towards him. In consequence, the girl's narrative has a power even though she cannot articulate it verbally in the way she wants to: How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was to frame any answer! Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words. Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response. (Brontë, 1992:21) Following the first successful attempt at a story, all the possible effects of storytelling come into perspective: she herself becomes aware of certain unadmitted relations, the story has an impact on her future, and this is how she learns the silenced, 16 muted story of her parents. This seems just a coincidence as it is by chance that she overhears Miss Abbot and Bessie talk; but considering the role of narratives in the text, this coincidence can be interpreted in a more meaningful way: Jane, as a result of her newly-gained voice, extends through her own narrative power, and the gaining of access to secrets until now unknown to her, so Jane's self-constructing narrative obtains a point of origin. The experience of her voice's potential strength gives Jane further discursive power. This is the point when she becomes capable of successfully and openly counterposing her own narrative to that of Mrs Reed, who, therefore, finding herself quite weak and impotent, changes her coercive strategy: as she has no other means but infantilisation, she tries, instead of violence, to flatter Jane to divert her from her own "reading" of the story. Mrs Reed sends her back to the nursery, wants her to obey and lie down (an echo of her first order in the text: "Be seated somewhere") and hopes to render her immobile. It was Mrs Reed who came victoriously out of their first fight, but in this case, it is Jane who is in perfect control of their dialogue: Mrs Reed has only the power to respond, whereas Jane is the initiator all through, and these roles determine the outcome of the exchange. The militant metaphors pervading the text at this point are more than expressive: "I was left alone-winner of the field. It was the hardest battle I had fought, and the first victory I had gained: I stood awhile on the rug, where Mr Brocklehurst had stood, and I enjoyed my conqueror's solitude" (Brontë, 1992:38). Symbolically, in winning the field, Jane takes the position of Mr Brocklehurst, her future antagonist in Lowood, and this doubly victorious position reveals that the power relations between her and either Mrs Reed or Mr Brocklehurst can only be an either-or choice, so their stories can only be exclusive and excluding each other, as they presuppose absolute power and absolute submission. As for Jane, however, one cannot but notice the pangs of this kind of victory: she enjoys her "conqueror's solitude" for a short while only, but the reversal of absolute power positions cannot, even at this stage, provide her with happiness: "Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic as wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned" (Brontë, 1992:39). This is the power position Jane never wants to take at any point of the text (including her return to Rochester, a scene sometimes interpreted as Jane's taking the upper hand), yet, it is more than functional at this point: as a result of her victory, as Bessie observes,
She's leaving home women's writing in English in a European context
This collection of essays, written by scholars from all over Europe, explores the cultural meanin... more This collection of essays, written by scholars from all over Europe, explores the cultural meanings of women leaving home. Although all the chapters analyse writings in English, the volume aims to put the narrative element of home-leaving into a European context by investigating travel in various directions: from England to somewhere abroad, from the (former) colonies to the (former) imperial centre or simply within a psychic space. The female figures discussed in the volume leave home for various reasons - to go into exile, to challenge orthodox conceptions of femininity, to travel for pleasure or out of curiosity - but ultimately each of them has to face questions of the definitions of home, belonging and otherness. Consequently, the essays in this collection focus on how the cross-cultural encounters implicated in discourses of race, gender, nation and religion affect female identity. The 'protagonists' of these narratives range from mythical heroines to early modern Protestant refugees to fictitious and historical figures from the past 200 years. The discussion throughout is informed by contemporary theories of gender, literary and cultural studies.
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