Seeking The Significant Form

Virginia Woolf(1882-1941) is generally regarded as one of the most excellent English modern novelists,who made a significant contribution to the development of modem novels and criticism.In her life of literary practice,she had been carrying out what was called the experiments of modernism,in which she absorbed the essence of the realistic novel, issued feministic call,and established her distinct narrative styles in English literature to catch the inner flames of human mind.The present thesis will focus on the most important facet of Virginia Woolf's fictional world—the narrative strategy which markedly differentiates her from other modern writers.And it is only through this narrative innovation that all her courageous literary pretensions come in full swing.In literary circle,critics often pay much more attention to the masterpieces of Woof's modern novels,such as Mrs.Dalloway and To the Lighthouse than Woolf's realistic novel The Voyage Out in themes and writing style.What most critics discuss about is their great difference not relevance.In fact,the narrative strategy employed in The Voyage Out has a close relation with that of Mrs.Dalloway and To the Lighthouse.In the light of narrative theory,this thesis makes a systematic analysis on the narrative strategy of Virginia Woolf's three novels from narrator, focalization,narrative time and narrative discourse.The reason why the present author chooses the three novels is that they represent the transitional progress of Virginia Woolf's literary practice from realism to modernism,including the beginning,the development and the culmination.The three novels not only properly embody that Woolf inherits the essence of the conventional narrative art but also innovates the modern narrative strategy,which form the transitional process of Virginia Woolf's narrative strategy.The thesis proposes to find out the formation of Woolf's modern narrative strategy,that is how Woolf "seeks the significant form"(Bell,1927:66) in her literary career.The thesis consists of five chapters:the introduction,Woolf s life and works,the theoretical framework,the case study,and the conclusion.Chapter One makes the general introduction to the thesis which includes literature review,assumption,methodology and the significance of the present study.Chapter Two gives a brief introduction to Virginia Woolf,her works and her writing background of her innovation.Chapter Three expounds a survey of narratology including the theories of narrator, focalization,narrative time and narrative discourse,mainly the theories of Gerald Gennete and Short &Leech,and explains some important terms employed in the thesis.Chapter Four,the most integral to this thesis, illustrates the case analysis of the excerpted texts of her three novels The Voyage Out,Mrs.Dalloway,To the Lighthouse through the four basic perspectives in narrative theory:narrator,focalization,narrative time and narrative discourse.Chapter Five comes to the author's brief conclusion of the previous discussions,the findings and limitations of the present study in the hope of encouraging further research in this domain.