The Voice Of The Other

Between the Acts is the last and posthumous work of Virginia Woolf,a leading figure of the school of "stream of consciousness" in the 20th century.Compared with Woolf's other masterpieces,such as Mrs.Dalloway and The Waves,Between the Acts has received less attention than it may deserve.Many criticisms on this novel focus on Woolf's thoughts on survival crisis,exploration of unity and contrast of politics and art,search for national identity and morality,exposure of female suppression in patriarchal society and her writing techniques in her late years.However,few critics have studied the silence of the Other and Woolf's reconstruction of history in this novel.Written during the period of WWII,Between the Acts bears Woolf's extensive thoughts on history,nature,human violence and various social factors.It presents a group of characters,such as Isa Oliver,Dodge William and Miss La Trobe,who are silenced by the social authorities and suppressed as the Other but consistently seek for methods to regain their voices.Based on a close reading of the novel,a thorough study on relevant reviews of Between the Acts and theories of the Other from scholars such as Simone de Beauvoir,this thesis comes to a conclusion that the reasons for the silence of the Other are external supervision from social norms,the attendant internal gaze of the Other and the unreliability of history.And the ways for the Others to regain their voices in social aspect,as indicated by Woolf,include recognition of the nature of gender inequality,communication with different social groups and the final realization of androgyny.In addition,what is more important is that through her keen observation of the characteristics of the marginalized and silenced group,Woolf has found not only the social and historical factors which are contributable to the silence,but also the fictionality of history.With her sensitivity as an artist,Woolf realizes the crisis of her time that hides beneath the surface of human civilization and thus is inspired to reconstruct history through art.In the last chapter,therefore,the focus of this thesis shifts to the discussion of Woolf's efforts in regaining the voices of the Other in historical aspect,including her destruction of traditional historical writings and her attempt to reconstruct history through art.By excavating the life and thoughts of the Other in Between the Acts,Woolf reconstructs history of patriarchal society by adding the silenced voices into the mainstream voices.As the swansong of Woolf,Between the Acts not only serves as the last endeavor of an artist to save the human civilization from being destroyed,but also embodies her thoughts about history and her unremitting pursuit of truth.