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Woolf Day 2. Concerns. Time: moving away from being bound to a strict sequence of events. Section 1 of To the Lighthouse takes place on one evening, between 6:00 PM and dinner. Section 2: Time passes. Human element completely removed. Only the house remains.
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Concerns • Time: moving away from being bound to a strict sequence of events. • Section 1 of To the Lighthouse takes place on one evening, between 6:00 PM and dinner. • Section 2: Time passes. Human element completely removed. Only the house remains. • Section 3: Memory. Present displaced by the past. • Devices: memory; foreshortening
Ideas • Truth: who faces reality and who avoids it • Men and women • The artist • Marriage • Solitude vs. society • Nature • Love • Compatibility vs.Incompatibility
Modernist Novel • Argued that the novel needed to be more than popular entertainment • Gatsby, To the Lighthouse, Heart of Darkness, (Robert Frost) • The “art-novel”: as artistic as a painting
Modernist Techniques • Interior monologue: Stream of consciousness • Term comes from William James, philosopher and psychologist • Consciousness not a chain of ideas, but a river or stream, where components are seamlessly merged
Stream-of-consciousness • Best known example: Final 50 pages of Joyce’s Ulysses…unpunctuated, because we don’t think in sentences • Woolf said that this enabled her to show what the interior life is really like and give the reader a deeper intimacy with her characters
Modernism is interested in the poetry of the sub-conscious life, in the psychological, and how that challenges our rational, real-world expectations
To the Lighthouse Pre-Reading • Read sections 1-3. Resist the temptation to use Spark Notes. It’s OK if you’re confused. Read it as she meant it to be read and see what you notice/understand. • When finished, write 2 paragraphs. Also…bring post-its if you have a library copy. • Paragraph 1: Describe the Ramsay family. • Paragraph 2: Describe your experience of reading this text.