Marina: Oral Virginia Woolf

1 -

Virginia Woolf was an English author born in 1882. She was regarded as one of the most important literary figures of the 20th century. She was very interested in feminist themes.

2- Preview

1st, we’ll focus on her non-conformism, secondly we’ll see how she plays with the English language, and then we’ll comment on her implication in feminism.

3- Body        

Free thinker

She started writing at the age of 16.

Getting older, she belonged to the Bloomsbury Group.

Ø    Rejected victorian and ewardian conventions, narrow-mindedness.

Ø    Intellectually non-conformists and praised friendship and loyalty

Ø    Wanted to create new forms of language, news ways of writing

-       Modernism

Considered as one of the greatest innovators in the English language

Created a world full of auditory and visuel impressions

Underlined psychological and emotional motives of the character she depicted

-       Feminism

Was interested in feminism themes.

Mrs Dalloway, published in 1925, cautioulsy detailed a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway.

She concentrated on the form more than on the story !

In her work, she focused on the difficulties female writers knew in a society that was run by men

She fought for the economic independance of women

4- Summary

Modernism demand efforts on the part of the reader

Modernist writers didn’t let their subjectivity show in their work. They enter their character’s consciousness.

5- Conclusion

Virginia Woolf’s writings are a celebration of intuitions and emotions.

Above all, she wanted women to escape from men’s dependance and to rach total freedom of mind and life.

Writing has always had a great importance though her life, and used to say :

 “Books are the mirrors of the soul.”