"Non-being" And "Being" Memory Writing In Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse

The thesis explores “non-being” and “being” memory writing in Virginia Woolf’s classic work To the Lighthouse,to disclose her pursuit of inner reality and reflections on the individual,the community and the culture from the perspectives of form and significance.Woolf divided memory into “non-being” memory and “being” memory,the former refers to trivial incidents in daily life,and the latter refers to important moments presenting in one’s inner world.“Being” memory can be divided into individual memory,communicative memory and cultural memory.In terms of form,Virginia Woolf employed H-shaped structure,time montage and multiple internal focalization to present characters’ inner world through simple plots.H-shaped structure unifies “non-being” memory and “being” memory,to unfold simple plots and characters’ inner world simultaneously.Time montage connects characters’ inner activities at different periods through one incident,to display the complexity of characters’ inner world and their changing mind.Multiple internal focalization compares different characters’ impressions on the same incident,to reveal multiplicity of characters’ inner world.In terms of significance,Virginia Woolf employed three kinds of “being” memory to express respectively Woolf’s introspections on the individual,the community and the culture.In individual memory,characters reflect on themselves to achieve the integration of universality and individuality,and the balance between rationality and sensibility,and they complete the transformation process from the false-self stage to the true-self stage,and finally to the selfless stage.In communicative memory,characters recall the moments of being loved in community interaction,to achieve reconciliation through comprehension among family members and empathy among friends.In cultural memory,characters get a sense of belongingness through the rite of journey to the lighthouse,and creates a harmonious lighthouse.Since the “lighthouse”is a symbol of the society,it also emblems a way to harmony in reality: love resolves solitude and contradiction,and leads to harmony.