VIRGINIA WOOLF
LIFE
- 1882, she was born in London in a highly intellectual family that had a great influence
on her approach to writing and art.
- 1895. her mother died and 2 years later also her sister. These events caused her a
nervous breakdown and they marked the start of her mental instability.
- 1904, after the death of her father, she moved to Bloomsbury where she founded a
circle of intellectuals, then became known as Bloomsbury Group.
- 1912, she married the publisher Leonard Woolf.
- 1922, she met the writer V.S. West, with whom she had a romantic affair.
- 1941, she drowned herself in the Rivers Ouse in Sussex.
LITERARY PRODUCTION
- 1915, first novel “The Voyage Out”
- 1917, she and her husband founded “The Hogarth Press” that published all Vitginia’s
books.
- 1919, “Night and Day”
- 1925, “Mrs Dalloway”
- 1927, ”To the Lighthouse”
- 1928, “Orlando”
- 1931, “The Waves”
- 1941, Between the Acts”
- She was also a essayist and critic: “The Common Reader” and “A Room of One’s
Own”
INTERIOR TIME
She didn’t prefer the traditional way of writing novels, instead she was interested in the
subjectivity, mostly the one of women.
The main aim was to give voice to the complex inner world of feelings and memories of
characters.
In this process the omniscient narrator disappears and she uses the indirect interior
monologue. There are still occasional appearances of the narrator who gives order to the
character's thoughts by arranging them in logical and grammatical sequence.
The point of view is inside the characters’ minds through flashbacks and ideas as a
continuous flow.
MOMENTS OF BEING
These are similar to Joyce’s epiphanies, so it’s a moment of intensity, perception or vision
that illuminates our life, and these elements are the key to understanding Woolf’s literary.
She expresses that there are two types of experiences:
1. Moments of being: acts experienced intensely and with awareness.
2. Moments of non-being: moments when the individual is not consciously aware of
living these moments.
