Community In Virginia Woolf’s Novels

As one of the most significant writers of modern age,Virginia Woolf used powerful strokes to show the changes of modern life.She is acutely aware of the change of unprecedented sense of isolation and suspicion among people.How to unite the dispersed modern people together and maintain the bond of the community of their common destiny was Woolf’s insightful reflection on community in modern society.This thesis,adopting French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy’s theory of community,explores Woolf’s unique view of the construction of community.The thesis consists of five chapters in total.Chapter One gives an introduction to Virginia Woolf and Jean-Luc Nancy’s theory of community;then,it sums up the previous researches on Virginia Woolf in terms of community in China and abroad;finally,it presents the purpose and methodology of the study.Chapter Two expounds the singularities in Woolf’s novels.The chapter analyzes the family members in To the Lighthouse,the friends in The Waves and the villagers in Between the Acts,and describes the alterity of the singularities in the group life and their relationships—opposition,contradiction and alienation.Chapter Three illustrates the impossibility of constructing the genuine community through the death of others in Woolf’s novels.The chapter analyzes a trip to the lighthouse in To the Lighthouse,a meeting at Hampton Court in The Waves and participation in the pageant in Between the Acts are the inoperative communities converged around the deaths of members in which there is impossible communion among singularities.It emphasizes that death that cannot be “experienced” does not“operate” the dead being’s passage into some communal intimacy.Such a community is the heterogeneous stacking.Chapter Four explores the construction of genuine communities through art in Woolf’s novels.The chapter analyzes the process of constructing the community of family members in To the Lighthouse,the community of friends in The Waves and the community of the village,the British nation and the community of the human race in Between the Acts.It emphasizes that the art that can be shared opens the passage of communication among singularities to construct the genuine community,achieving the compearance of singularities’ finitude.In the process of members’ communication,alienation and conflicts among them are alleviated.Thereby,the inoperative community operates.Chapter Five is the conclusion part.The thesis draws a conclusion that Woolf’s concept of community represented in her novels focuses on how to unite singularities,emphasizing the diversity of the community of the human race.What she pursues for is the genuine community in which singularities coexist based on the respect and protection of the heterogeneity of them,transcending isolation,opposition and contradiction to achieve the harmonious community in human world.The thesis demonstrates Woolf’s careful consideration over the construction and deconstruction of community and her representation of the fictionalized community that accommodates heterogeneity.