My Literature And IT Review

My working title for my thesis is “The Preservation Of Literary Traditions In The Works Of Walter Scott And Virginia Woolf”, and in this assignment I will be examining the texts that I believe will aid me in developing my argument. Texts that directly compare both authors are scarce and difficult to find, so making a comparison between them will prove challenging at best. However, I find that texts dealing with the authors specifically also offer important information-for example, Hermione Lee’s autobiography of Virginia Woolf and Charles Yonge’s account of Walter Scott’s life delve into their of novel influences more deeply. In this vein, I will be focusing on topics that continue to reoccur in the literature I have examined; the concept of the “invisible” writer, a veiled fear of the past being forgotten and the representation of the female figure.

To begin with the concept of the hidden writer, I will  be examining  Hermione Lee’s Virginia Woolf , which traces Woolf’s childhood introduction to Scott, her pronounced admiration for Scott as “the greatest of all the ventriloquist writers” (Lee, 721) and her consequent struggle with whether it was better for an author’s identity to be assertive or obscure. To go into this idea in more detail I will be making reference to the concept at work in her novels. I have decided on Between The Acts as the novel that will best represent this theory, as it deals with private and public identity crisis. Charles Yonge’s The Life And Writings Of Walter Scott gives an intimate account of Scott’s favour of anonymity from the beginning of his career as novelist, assuming the title of “The Author Of Waverley” (Yonge, 39). I will also examining this desire for disguise in the novels Waverley and The Antiquary, where the author’s private opinion remains obscure. I find these texts correspond perfectly when dealing with the topic  in hand.

 

Finding texts on the authors’ opinions on past traditions, literary and cultural, that may have had a similarity has proved more complicated. Taken at face value, the opinions of both authors could not have been more different. Scott’s antiquarian attitude appears to glory in tradition, while Woolf discredits former values at every turn. I will be using The Afterlives Of Walter Scott by Ann Rigney on the basis of its attempts to balance out Woolf’s critical perspective of this aspect of Scott’s writings, assessing his place in the literary canon against Woolf’s then-modern narrative. Rigney concludes that whilst Woolf firmly disassociates him from current literary values, she owns that he plays an integral part in literary history (Rigney, 209). I will also be examining Alice Chandler’s article Chivalry And Romance: Scott’s Medieval Novels, which questions the possible use of irony in the mode of dramatic scenery and dialogue in Scott’s works. Waverley, with is disillusioned hero in the form of Edward Waverley, conforms perfectly to this pattern. I will also examine the pageant scene from Between The Acts, which is a valuable insight into Woolf’s views on the preservation of past culture.

The representation of the female figure is probably the most complex. For Virginia Woolf, I will not simply be looking at her novels, but also her diaries, particularly The Diary Of Virginia Woolf Volume One and Volume Two which offer extensive insight into her social circle-particularly other women in the Bloomsbury group. I will not just examine Woolf’s diaries. I recently examined the letters and diaries of Bloomsbury artist Dora Carrington and will be combining both her written accounts as well as Woolf’s to give an idea of the influence Woolf was exposed to when crafting the heroines of her novels. It will give a clear idea of the kind of modern heroine Woolf hoped to create. To illustrate the concept at work in her novels, I will be examining Mrs Dalloway and its innovative examination of feminine identity. In the case of Walter Scott’s representations of women, I will be examining Walter Scott: The Making Of A Novelist by Jane Millgate, which offers an in-depth account of the heroine Flora McIvor in Waverley and her revolutionary character. Some Unpublished Letters Of Sir Walter Scott will also be examined; his correspondence with Maria Edgeworth and admiration for her work will be a crucial part of my argument.

 

I will also be making use of online sources, such as Jstor, EBESCO and Questia. I will also be making use of recorded radio interviews via YouTube, specifically in the case of Virginia Woolf.

Works Cited

Scott, Walter. Waverley Or Tis Sixty Years Since. Oxford: University Press, 2015.

Millgate, Jane. Walter Scott The Making Of A Novelist. Edinburgh: University Press, 1984.

Some Unpublished Letters Of Sir Walter Scott. London: Hazell Watson & Viney, 1932

Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. London: Vintage, 1997.

Woolf, Virginia. The Diary Of Virginia Woolf: Volume One 1915-1919. Anne Olivier Bell (ed). Middlesex: Penguin, 1979.

Woolf, Virginia.The Diary Of Virginia Woolf: Volume Two 1920-1924. Anne Olivier Bell (ed). New York: Harvest, 1978.

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 2003.

Carrington, Dora. Carrington:Letters And Extracts From Her Diary. David Garnett (ed). Oxford: University Press, 1970.

Rigney, Ann. The Afterlives Of Walter Scott. Oxford: University Press, 2012.

Carrington: Letters And Extracts From Her Diary. Google Images. <http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/carrington-letters-and-extracts-from-her-diaries-letters-and-extracts-from-her-diaries/&gt;

The Diary Of Virginia Woolf Volume One 1915-1919. Google Images. <http://www.amazon.com/The-Diary-Virginia-Woolf-Vol/dp/0156260360&gt;

The Life Of Walter Scott. Google Images. <https://archive.org/details/familiaranecdot00bloogoog&gt;

Virginia Woolf. Google Images. <http://www.hermionelee.com/woolf.html&gt;

Walter Scott: The Makings Of A Novelist. <http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Scott-The-Making-Novelist/dp/0802066925&gt;