The Story Frame:
(Episodes)
1. Inside her apartment
2. a London square
3. the boot shop
4. Mayfair
5. the used book store
6. on the Strand
7. the stationary shop
8. Back in her apartment
Questions
A) Are there connecting themes in the work of D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf? Provide instances.
B) What theme emerges when you juxtapose the boot shop episode with her experience in Mayfair?
C) In what sense has the main character "come full circle" (become "whole"?) by the end of the adventure? While there seems to be no character development in the traditional sense--in fact almost explicitly resisted--is there still development in this tale? If so, in what ways and how?
D) What theme emerges at the end of the Mayfair episode and is sustained until the episode on the Strand? How might this theme relate to the boot shop episode?
E) In what ways, has Virginia Woolf abandoned the 'traditional signposts', as she says in "On Modern Fiction", used by authors of the past? How successful was she with this project? (Note: Think about how more traditional authors would handle the episode where Woolf's character observes a woman answering the doorbell.)
F) Woolf writes in "On Modern Fiction",
Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a
luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the
beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist
to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit,
whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little mixture
of the alien and external as possible?
How might this statement be related to street haunting? Compare and contrast the way in which both Lawrence and Woolf try to capture Life.
G) In light of this piece, what might the words 'the external world' mean to Virginia Woolf?
H) In agreement with Holloway's thought on Virginia Woolf, how might this piece demonstrate, as he puts it, "the sense of inexhaustible interest and significance and goodness of experience, even at its most immediate and transient" one might find in reading Woolf?
I) Is there really pleasure, and perhaps security, in joining "the vast republican army of anonymous trampers", as Virginia Woolf puts it? How so? Further, what does this have to do with the composition of fiction? [Feel free to relate personal experiences.]
J) How is the theme of self-identity related to issues of self-confidence in this piece? Further, does Woolf (attempt to) say something about human nature in general?
K)
1. Discuss at least one main theme in this piece?
2. What are some literary techniques Virginia Woolf employs to achieve the poetic effect?
3. How does Virginia Woolf challenge our notions of time and space? Is location important to Woolf? In what ways? How is this demonstrated in this piece?
(Episodes)
1. Inside her apartment
2. a London square
3. the boot shop
4. Mayfair
5. the used book store
6. on the Strand
7. the stationary shop
8. Back in her apartment
Questions
A) Are there connecting themes in the work of D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf? Provide instances.
B) What theme emerges when you juxtapose the boot shop episode with her experience in Mayfair?
C) In what sense has the main character "come full circle" (become "whole"?) by the end of the adventure? While there seems to be no character development in the traditional sense--in fact almost explicitly resisted--is there still development in this tale? If so, in what ways and how?
D) What theme emerges at the end of the Mayfair episode and is sustained until the episode on the Strand? How might this theme relate to the boot shop episode?
E) In what ways, has Virginia Woolf abandoned the 'traditional signposts', as she says in "On Modern Fiction", used by authors of the past? How successful was she with this project? (Note: Think about how more traditional authors would handle the episode where Woolf's character observes a woman answering the doorbell.)
F) Woolf writes in "On Modern Fiction",
Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a
luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the
beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist
to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit,
whatever aberration or complexity it may display, with as little mixture
of the alien and external as possible?
How might this statement be related to street haunting? Compare and contrast the way in which both Lawrence and Woolf try to capture Life.
G) In light of this piece, what might the words 'the external world' mean to Virginia Woolf?
H) In agreement with Holloway's thought on Virginia Woolf, how might this piece demonstrate, as he puts it, "the sense of inexhaustible interest and significance and goodness of experience, even at its most immediate and transient" one might find in reading Woolf?
I) Is there really pleasure, and perhaps security, in joining "the vast republican army of anonymous trampers", as Virginia Woolf puts it? How so? Further, what does this have to do with the composition of fiction? [Feel free to relate personal experiences.]
J) How is the theme of self-identity related to issues of self-confidence in this piece? Further, does Woolf (attempt to) say something about human nature in general?
K)
1. Discuss at least one main theme in this piece?
2. What are some literary techniques Virginia Woolf employs to achieve the poetic effect?
3. How does Virginia Woolf challenge our notions of time and space? Is location important to Woolf? In what ways? How is this demonstrated in this piece?