Adeline Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf? 1882 65438+1October 25th-1941March 28th). British women writers are regarded as one of the pioneers of modernism and feminism in the twentieth century. During the two world wars, Woolf was the core figure in London literature, and she was also the Bloomsbury Group? One of the members of). His most famous novels include Mrs dalloway? ), "lighthouse tour" (to the lighthouse? ), "Jacob's room" (Jacob's room? )。

Life and work

Woolf was born in London and educated at home. Before marriage, her name was Adeline Virginia Stephen? )。 1895 after her mother died, she had a nervous breakdown for the first time. Later, she wrote in her autobiography "The Time of Existence"? ) tells the story of her and her sister Vanessa Bayer (Vanessa Bayer? ) suffered from half-brothers George and jared Duckworth (Gerald Duckworth? ) sexual assault. 1904 Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen (? After her death, she and Vanessa moved to Bloomsbury? )。 Later, with them and a few friends as the center, Bloomsbury literati group was established. She started her professional writing career on 1905, initially writing for The Times Literary Supplement.

19 12 married Leonard Woolf. Her husband is a civil servant and a political theorist. Virginia Woolf was hesitant about her marriage. She is like Lily in the novel To the Lighthouse. Although she thinks that love is like a magnificent flame, she regards marriage as a "disaster of losing identity" because she must burn the "treasure" of her personality. It is conceivable that a woman with such a pessimistic view began to build a "two-person space" at the age of 30. However, it turns out that Virginia's worry is unnecessary, but her psychological crux left her with fear and indifference to sex, which made her marriage life go wrong from the beginning. Leonard, who graduated from Cambridge University, is full of literary talent and insight. He admired Virginia's extraordinary wisdom, not her elegant manners. In his eyes, Virginia is a "wise virgin", which can only be seen from a distance and cannot be laughed at. She is completely free from worldly sensuality. It should be said that at first, Leonard was unwilling. He fantasized that he could awaken Virginia's sexual consciousness, just as the prince awakened the sleeping beauty. After several efforts in vain, he wrote the novel "The Wise Virgin", borrowing the tone of the protagonist Harry David to condemn cold-blooded women, thinking that "those pale women with fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes ... are cold, and at the same time", and his angry words (almost cursing) undoubtedly caused deep damage to Virginia's self-esteem. The "spiritual avalanche" after Virginia's marriage sounded the alarm in time for Leonard, and he decided to accept his fate and pursue a higher realm of spiritual love. For him to do this, there is only one reason-"she is a genius"-which is enough. Virginia's gratitude is also beyond words. She clearly declared that Leonard was the hidden core of her life and the source of her creativity. 1930, Virginia told a friend that without Leonard, she might have shot herself. Leonard can be said to have contributed to Virginia's extraordinary literary achievements under the condition of infirmity.

19 15, her first novel voyage was published, and subsequent works were deeply loved by critics and readers. Most of his works are promoted by his own "Hogarth Edition".

Woolf is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the 20th century and a pioneer of modernist literature. However, she doesn't like some modernist writers herself, such as Joyce. She has made many innovations in English language, trying to write novels with the method of stream of consciousness, trying to describe people's subconscious mind. Edward morgan forster called her English "a small step in the bright direction". Her achievements and innovations in literature are still influential today. Her popularity declined after World War II, but with the rise of feminism in the 1970s, she became the focus of literary circles.

Woolf suffers from severe depression. She once mentioned in a letter to a friend in 1936:

"... never believe my letter, don't exaggerate it, it was written after lying in bed all night looking at a bottle of trichloroacetaldehyde and saying, no, no, no, you shouldn't take it. Strangely, insomnia, even an improved insomnia, has the power to scare me. I think it has something to do with the bad times that I can't control myself. "

Written in 1942, this scene was Virginia Woolf's last work before her death. When the novel was written in the first fifth, the author told a maid who did menial work in Points House to breathe by the cool lotus pond. By the way, a lady drowned there ten years ago. It was a thick green water with countless fish "swimming around in a self-centered world, shining."

This is really an unknown omen: it was only one month after the novel was written, that is, on March 28th, 194 1, the incomparable Woolf filled her pockets with stones and jumped into the Ous River near her home in Rodmel. In her suicide note to her husband, she wrote:

Dearest:

I think I must be going crazy again. I don't think we can experience that terrible moment again. I won't recover this time. I began to hear all kinds of voices, and I couldn't concentrate. So I will take the action that seems most appropriate. You gave me the greatest happiness. What anyone can do in all aspects, you have done. I believe that before the arrival of this terrible disease, no two people can be as happy as we are. I can't call again. I know I am ruining your life; You can work without me. I know, that's what happened. Look, I can't even write this note well. I can't read either. What I want to say is that all the happiness in my life is given by you. You have been very patient with me. That's very kind of you. What I want to say is-everyone knows. If anyone can save me, it's you. Now, everything has left me, and all that remains is to be sure of your kindness. I can't continue to ruin your life.

I believe that no two people are so happy as when we are together. keep

(According to Quentin Bell (Quentin Bell: Woolf's nephew), it was translated from the original text in the biography. )

Modern research

In recent years, the research on Woolf mainly focuses on three directions: feminism, homosexuality and the history of depression. An example of this is a series of literary comments written by Irene Barrett and Patricia Cram in 1997: Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Reading.

1966 Elizabeth Taylor's movie "Who is Virginia Woolf's Africa? ), but the title of this film has nothing to do with Virginia Woolf, but applies an English nursery rhyme called "Who is the Wolf's Africa?" "

In 2002, a film The Hours appeared, which was adapted from the story of Woolf when she wrote Mrs. Dalloway. This film was nominated for the Oscar for best picture, but it didn't win the prize. But Nicole Kidman, the main character of the film, won the best actress award. This film is based on the novel of the same name by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham 1998. Among them, The Hours is the name Woolf gave Mrs. Dalloway during her writing. However, scholars engaged in Woolf studies are very dissatisfied with the image of Woolf depicted in the film.

Sailing) (19 15+05)

Day and night) (19 19+09)

Jacob's room (1920)

Mrs dalloway) (1925)

To the lighthouse) (1927)

Orlando (Biology) (1928)

Wave) (193 1+0 years)

Year) (1937)

Between behaviors (194 1 year)

Haunted house and others (collection of short stories)

Informal article

A room of my own (1929)

General reader I (general reader) (1925)

General Reader ii (Second General Reader) (1933)

Three guineas (1938)

Biography of roger fry: A Biography (1940)

Death of moths and other essays (1942)

Examples and other articles (1948)

The moment of existence

Modern novels (19 19)

1September 992 16 at the Toronto film festival in Canada, a film based on Virginia Woolf? Orlando's movie of the same name was released.

She was homesick because her best friend ran away from home. In order to express her yearning, Woolf took her as the prototype and created the legendary novel Orlando, which is called "the longest and most touching love letter in the world".

Some critics divide Woolf's novels into two categories: dramatic novels and experimental novels. They believe that dramatic novels are a dramatic transplant of her social comments, enabling her to express her views on social issues through the twists and turns of the characters in her works. Orlando should be listed here. The novel breaks through the limitations of age and gender, follows the legendary experience of the protagonist in the past 300 years, re-examines the history of English literature in a funny way under the superficial plot of light humor, and puts forward serious issues such as gender differences, women and literature, which will be formally discussed in the book review My Room published in the same period. Therefore, this novel about homosexuality, transvestite and androgyny is of great significance to feminist criticism. Then colonialism attached great importance to Orlando's experience of sending missions to the East. At the time when the novel was published, homosexuality, race and other issues were puzzling Britain together and becoming a hot topic among the public. From this point of view, there is no lack of ironic social significance in the novel.

Before the rise of feminism, Orlando was once ignored. Woolf himself called it a joke. In recent years, with the in-depth development of feminist literary theory and postmodernism's re-emphasis on modernism, Orlando has attracted more and more attention from critics and become the essence of feminist critical model writers.

Title: Woolf's newly discovered notes and British criticism

Sending station: BBS Shui Mu Tsinghua Station (Sunjan1123: 33: 46, 2004), forwarding letters.

Woolf's Newly Discovered Notes and British Criticism

Liu Naiyin 04-0 1-07

On June 14, 2003, John Ezard wrote an article in The Guardian, announcing that there was a Virginia Woolf.

Dave's early notebook, which had been sleeping in a drawer of a scholar in Birmingham for 35 years, was rediscovered because of moving.

Note * * * has 60 pages, and the time span is from1February 909 to165438+1October. It's in the library of Sussex University now.

July 15, the notebook is entitled "Carlisle's house and other sketches"

Sketches) is published by Hess Perus Publishing House and edited by David Bradshaw of Oxford University.

Doctor, Doris Lessing wrote the preface.

Woolf worked hard all his life and wrote a lot. Besides novels, she also wrote many essays and diaries for later use.

The first-hand data of human research have been collected completely. Now, there is an early work note.

This is something that researchers have never thought of. British critics showed great interest in notes, saying that it

It provides first-hand information about the author's life and thoughts in that year. Brad Shaw said that notes make people "fall in love at first sight".

Some new things of Woolf, some new aspects of her life, ""broaden our understanding of Virginia 1909.

Understanding of her whereabouts, contacts and social activities, because these seven sketches are either related to the main characters in her life or to the master.

The main problems are related to the aspects in her works that critics think people should pay attention to. "Notes.

It provides new evidence that Woolf likes to explore the truth of everything. "I have always had a professional impulse to train myself.

Your own' eyes and hands', use notes to record things that may be useful in the novel one day. "Lessing thinks" pen "

The significance of keeping notebooks is to help people know more about writers who are still apprentices. "Open" in order not to

Excellent five-finger exercises in the past. "Jane Gadam although think the content of the notes is not so important, but

However, I still feel that from the first sentence, what we heard is undoubtedly the voice of Virginia's exploration and pursuit.

1909 Woolf was 27 years old when he wrote this letter. At that time, my sister Vanessa had married clive bell.

Having children has made some achievements in painting, and Virginia herself wants to work with her brother Adrian.

Moved to the home of Carlyle, a famous writer, at 29 Fitzroy Square nearby. Virginia doesn't like it here very much

Life at school, living with my brother, is not very harmonious, so I miss living with my sister more.

. Compared with my sister, Virginia's marriage problems are not smooth. She has no shortage of suitors, so Blums.

In her circle, more than one person proposed to her, and she refused. This year, however, she answered.

She was proposed by Litton Strachey, who is two years older than herself. Strachey read widely and wrote The Victorian Age.

Biographies, famous artists. However, this openly homosexual tendency, shortly after the engagement, broke off the engagement. Personal marriage problem

The topic is not smooth and the career prospects are vague. Virginia regularly writes book reviews for newspapers at this time, mainly for

The Guardian and The Times Literary Supplement, but the articles published in this area are gradually decreasing.

Yes, mainly because she wants to be a novelist. She tried to write a novel, but no novel has been published yet. 1June, 909, she

The first fictional work was submitted to a national magazine and the manuscript was returned. And the novel voyage,

It was not published until six years later.

All these mental pains and resentments brought to Virginia can be found on this note. material

In fact, the tone of the newly discovered notes is far from relaxed and pleasant. Obviously, Virginia's personal marriage failed.

Fold, make her particularly concerned about marriage. In the section "hampstead", Virginia wrote, "It worked, but it didn't.

Married women have a special appearance: elegant but without gender, and tend to be strict. Novelist Jane

Gadam believes that this is related to the fact that Virginia is still an unmarried woman. Gadam even thought, "The more.

Reading notes, the more I read it, the more I think it has something to do with marriage. "

Probably Virginia is in a bad mood, and the description of the characters in the notes is hard on the dark side, which leads to criticism.

Economists worry that people will mistakenly think that notebooks reflect all writers. Brad Shaw thinks, "We shouldn't.

Let the tone and content of the notes blind our eyes, and we can't see that like all truly great artists, Wu

Woolf is as elusive and inseparable as the life she describes. "Brad Shaw reminds people that Virginia"

In the 1930s, it was necessary not only to write a pro-Jewish novel (Time), but also to be cautious and extremely painful.

Look at your own paranoia, look at the paranoia in your class. ""What we are seeing now is Woolf's works.

Sketch of family probation; They are by no means the whole story. "

The question about Jews mentioned here is the place where critics generally react strongly to notes.

There was a sketch entitled "The Jew" on the note, which said to Mrs. Loeb, "... a fat Jewish woman,

I am 56 years old, with rough skin, loose eyes and unkempt hair ... The food I eat is of course greasy and impressive.

Ouch. The Guardian highlighted the quotation with a subtitle. That this blatantly slanderous language against Jews

, exposing Virginia's early prejudice against Jews. Jane Gadam also commented that this description, "Now,

It seemed so shocking that even people at that time would feel bored. "

However, critics defend Virginia in different ways and from different angles. Ezard is quoting Christopher.

Virginia's defamatory description of Jews also quotes Professor Hermioni Lee of Oxford University: "

I don't want to defend these unpleasant parts of my writing at all. Virginia wool

Dave is more critical of his prejudice than anyone else. "On the one hand, bradshaw thinks so.

Description, "plainly boring. The bitterness of' Jews' is unparalleled in the notes, which shows F.

The disgusting (if traditional) side of Virginia anti-Semitism ",at the same time, he thinks," nonsense "

Virginia's belittling of Mrs. Anne Loeb may be the most crucial point in her notes.

Points. "In order to defend Virginia, the caption of Brad Shaw's commentary is," In the future, she will be very painful.

Take a closer look at your paranoia. Brad Shaw made it clear that Virginia shown in the notes was not very attractive.

Plesent, therefore, readers need to "pay attention to something that will be emphasized in her greatest novel." suggestion

Mature Virginia is the more real Virginia.

Comparatively speaking, the novelist Lessing is more willing to accept Virginia shown in her notes, although at the same time she

I also believe that Virginia in the notes is not all. Lessing does not hide that notes are snobbish and anti-Semitic.

. She thinks Virginia and her friends are a group of Bohemian artists who are "sensitive and like art".

"advocating true interest" and "clearly opposing my own times", so I saw Virginia in my notes.

It is natural to express dissatisfaction with people from all walks of life. Lessing believed that Virginia belonged to some people at that time.

Bohemian artists, they not only oppose the vulgarity of the middle class, but also oppose the working class, their snobbery.

"It is not only ridiculous, but also harmful, and it is narrow ignorance." So some prejudices in the notes belong to this.

Some are artists, others are Virginia's own. However, another aspect of the problem is that Virginia is right.

The prevailing customs are critical, and they criticize mercilessly. Sometimes they are even quite biased and extreme, and they often go to extremes.

For example, Virginia emphasizes thinness and sensitivity in writing, and does not appreciate writers who are not good at thinness and sensitivity.

. This is of course biased, but this is the real Virginia, and this real Virginia is often ignored by people.

From this perspective, Lessing analyzes the recent film The Hours.

Profound criticism. In her view, Woolf portrayed in the film is not a real Woolf, but a contemporary female writer.

It'll be a big surprise, Woolf. The film gives people a "sensitive and painful image of a female novelist".

In fact, Virginia is a "vicious and annoying woman" and a "foul-mouthed,

Despite the upper-class accent. "The real Virginia, like other female writers, pursues truth.

But this truth-seeking woman writer was not understood at that time, and James Strachey and his Cambridge were mentioned in her notes.

The description in Friends is an example. Lessing believes that Virginia's acerbity is also because she faces a society hostile to women.

A reaction, "it seems that future generations have to make Virginia gentle, respectable, peaceful and elegant, so."

I can't see the rough, harsh and harsh parts, which may be the source of creation. Virginia finally

It is inevitable to eventually become a gentle female writer, but I don't think any of us want to pretend.

Woolf will be played by a young, beautiful and fashionable girl, unsmiling and frowning forever, which proves that she has it.

Many difficult ideas are being thought about ... oh, my god! This woman enjoys life when she is not sick; Love party

Friends, picnics, hiking, hiking. "

Emphasize the ideological content of the work, pay attention to the author's social attitude, do not flatter beauty, do not shy away, and strive to be objective.

Looking for a real Virginia, I think this is the mainstream of British criticism of the newly discovered Virginia.

Remember the basic attitude.

Source: China Reading Newspaper