| Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing attention to the testimonial dimension of literary texts, that is to say the ways in which they attempt to bear witness to painful events or losses that have not been properly mourned. Out of these debates about the possibility of knowing and representing such complex events, a theory has emerged that proposes to read the wound inflicted on the psyche with the help of literature. As a theory that deals primarily with ways of transmitting experiences that have not been properly assimilated, trauma theory challenges preconceived notions of reference, knowledge, and closure, and in doing so, it reveals a deconstructive open-endedness that is in keeping with the poststructuralist moment in criticism.;Key words. Virginia Woolf, trauma, narrative, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, Modernism;This dissertation examines Virginia Woolf s work in the light of these recent developments. The works I analyze range from major novels to early short fiction, and they have in common an underlying attempt to bear witness to a set of traumatic events both historical and textual. The events in question, whether personal, historical, or imagined, are not directly presented, but are instead constantly subject to a narrative reformulation that seeks to reintegrate them into a more recognizable scheme. Yet, at the heart of our contemporary understanding of trauma is the idea that a missed event will never be fully known, and this lack of knowledge often results in a situation where the event will be repeated in various forms including, dreams, and flashbacks. This lack of resolution is nowhere more evident than in Virginia Woolf's work, where narrative is marked by a set of repetitive motifs that testify to the haunting impact of certain experiences. To approach Woolf's work, it will be argued, is to come face to face with a wound that persistently cries to be heard, yet whose exact nature continually escapes our understanding. |
