Topic 18: Woolf
February 27th – March 3rd, 2023
A Room of One’s Own (Chapter VI)
The general sense that male authorship is an impediment and associated with a specific style.
● Woolf associates this with a style of masculine thought – Woolf is trying to produce a
specific type of art that moves beyond the “I”
The modernists and Woolf represent interiority and psychology… not just the individual self that
is at risk.
Characters
Which characters in To The Lighthouse seem to embody the “I” (ego-centered) perspective of
“male writing” in their way of being in/looking at the world? Why and how?
● Are there other ways of inhabiting/looking at the world that the novel explores?
● Mr Ramsay – very narcissistic, all of his interactions/the interactions that he observes are
centered around himself
● Lily observes people in a scenic way – she’s a watcher
○ One key means by which Woolf sees the transcendence of the self happening is
through art – in the scenes where she is painting, you’ll notice that painting
becomes not an expression of self but an erasure of self
○ Personal impressions need to be made abstract for her paintings to emerge?
● Mr Tansley – women cannot do x amount of things – self promotion happening in
literally every single interaction that he has
● James – sees his mother has serving him, sees his father as a competitor?
● Does Mrs Ramsay’s self sacrifice as a household figure feed her vanity?
○ Is she a figure of domination in the text?
Free Indirect Discourse
When the narrator’s voice blends with the character’s voice (third person narration focalized
through a character’s perspective – blending)
The Dinner Party
Changes from each character’s perception of each other.
● Stark gender dynamics – masculinity depends on the women to facilitate conversation.
Social gatherings –
● “The Window” – functions as a kind of trope for looking; people always look through at
others… becomes an eventual mirror?
○ In the first section, we see the variety of ways people look
○ In the second section, Woolf transforms the perspective (time passing)
February 27th – March 3rd, 2023
A Room of One’s Own (Chapter VI)
The general sense that male authorship is an impediment and associated with a specific style.
● Woolf associates this with a style of masculine thought – Woolf is trying to produce a
specific type of art that moves beyond the “I”
The modernists and Woolf represent interiority and psychology… not just the individual self that
is at risk.
Characters
Which characters in To The Lighthouse seem to embody the “I” (ego-centered) perspective of
“male writing” in their way of being in/looking at the world? Why and how?
● Are there other ways of inhabiting/looking at the world that the novel explores?
● Mr Ramsay – very narcissistic, all of his interactions/the interactions that he observes are
centered around himself
● Lily observes people in a scenic way – she’s a watcher
○ One key means by which Woolf sees the transcendence of the self happening is
through art – in the scenes where she is painting, you’ll notice that painting
becomes not an expression of self but an erasure of self
○ Personal impressions need to be made abstract for her paintings to emerge?
● Mr Tansley – women cannot do x amount of things – self promotion happening in
literally every single interaction that he has
● James – sees his mother has serving him, sees his father as a competitor?
● Does Mrs Ramsay’s self sacrifice as a household figure feed her vanity?
○ Is she a figure of domination in the text?
Free Indirect Discourse
When the narrator’s voice blends with the character’s voice (third person narration focalized
through a character’s perspective – blending)
The Dinner Party
Changes from each character’s perception of each other.
● Stark gender dynamics – masculinity depends on the women to facilitate conversation.
Social gatherings –
● “The Window” – functions as a kind of trope for looking; people always look through at
others… becomes an eventual mirror?
○ In the first section, we see the variety of ways people look
○ In the second section, Woolf transforms the perspective (time passing)
