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 BetweenTheActs as the novel that will best represent this theory, as it deals with private and public identity crisis. Charles Yonge’s TheLifeAndWritingsOfWalterScott 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 TheAntiquary, 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 WoolfVolumeOne and VolumeTwo 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 ANovelist 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. WaverleyOrTisSixtyYearsSince. Oxford: University Press, 2015.
Millgate, Jane. Walter ScottTheMakingOfANovelist. 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.
Well, here I am, contemplating the conclusion of my MA in Modernities, which I have found to be an incredible learning and social experience. Of course, the most crucial part of the academic course is swiftly approaching (our thesis) yet what we have learned from our Research module has been of vital importance in educating us to broaden our perspectives when it comes to piecing the jigsaw together. Central to this developmental process has been, of course, our blog. I will admit that I approached the task of blogging my opinions, personal and academic, on topics I found interesting a panic-inducing prospect. My interaction with social media had been limited to Facebook, and even then the page was only created under duress from irritated friends who couldn’t understand why my mode of contact remained so stubbornly that of the phone. That had to change, and during September last year it did. Not only have I become comfortable with academic blogging-I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly! From casting a critical eye over my blog and its entries, I have charted my progress on the basis of three key dates. My first blog set the tone for a concept I believe to be an important part of my upcoming thesis and also had a link with the ideas of one or two more blog entries. The Wikipedia editing session yielded a great deal of information about the potential of Wikipedia as a resource, and how we could contribute to it. Finally, our mini conference preparation relayed a wealth of experience and information that was very enlightening in relation to the art of public speaking and research technique.
My first blog contemplated the term of Bohemia, and whether it can amount to an actual geographic location or rather a location in the mind. The efforts of the inhabitants of Montmartre and the Bloomsbury group stands as a testament to the efforts of artistic circles “to create an actual, physical manifestation of their liberal train of thought. With every generation of Bohemian culture, came an attempt to form a community whose society would thrive entirely on the principles of liberal art and life practices”. This glance through the possibility of trying to transform an ideal into an actual geographical location was a concept of intense interest for me. These hubs of aesthetic revolution left their mark, but more poignantly, left a landmark-a place forever associated with the cultural movement of their inhabitants, however brief. Nevertheless, I found myself musing on one particular passage of my blog as I re-read it lately. The idea that “we each create our own Bohemia through the life of the mind with the information we possess, our own world of liberal ideals that manifests itself in our artistic creations”. It didn’t take me long to make a link between this concept of psychological / physical landscape and a topic examined at length in one particular research seminar.
Members Of The Bloomsbury Group
Dr Eibhear Walshe’s seminar “Elizabeth Bowen And The Landscape Of Loss” was one of the seminars I chose to blog about, and I did so out of fascination with the blurring of boundaries between psychological and actual landscapes in Bowen’s work. The reoccurring idea of “elsewhere” suggests a place of refuge, where ideas and dreams can flourish. Not too dissimilar, I thought, from another contemporary of Bowen’s. “This concept of an “Elsewhere” is highly reminiscent of the writings of Virginia Woolf, a close friend of Bowen. Woolf’s emphasis on the female space is present in all her writings, most particularly in MrsDalloway and ARoom OfOne’sOwn. This search for a space to thrive in likewise dominates Bowen’s work. The theme of shifting and unstable geography crops up again and again (Walshe, 29), suggesting an ongoing search for a place that can allow for authentic existence”. To get a further grasp on such a theory, I examined Bowen’s travel memoir A Time In Rome and the extraordinary account of Livia creating her own space, “Bowen appeals to the reader to imagine the thoughts of Livia during that period; her relationship with her husband, the necessity of remaining stoic within the position she held and most poignantly her possible desire for an “Elsewhere” when the chaos of the political storm in which she lived became too difficult psychologically (Bowen, EBOOK). Dr Walshe noted a description of Livia’s private room in her villa Prima Porta, which Bowen had visited in the course of her travels in Rome and lavishly describes with acute detail. A slave probably designed the painted garden, but it was her haven, her place of security and peace. She completes the aesthetic as the owner who finds solace within its walls”.
A Time In Rome By Elizabeth Bowen
This contemplation of the characteristics of landscape also, to my delight, had found its way into the work of Walter Scott some one hundred years earlier. Not strictly in the same sense, but there are very clear similarities regarding landscape fuelling the psyche of the individual. In Waverley, I found the description of Flora’s recitation in the glen and its impact on the mind of her young suitor very much in this vein, and recorded it in my blog titled “Walter Scott: The Geography Of Imagination”.
“She purposefully chooses a glen with an appearance of a “sylvan amphitheatre” with a “romantic waterfall…that corresponds with beauty” (Scott, 117). “Mossy banks of turf” complete this scene of “romantic wildness” (Scott, 117). Flora is already aware of Waverley’s romantic disposition; she calculates the impact this will have on him. She is proved correct. Waverley in enamoured with the surroundings-and with her”.
I also realised that Waverly’s location of refuge in his youth corresponded with the concept of Livia’s place of solace, “his “favourite haunt[s]” being the “extensive…forest grounds” or “cliffy and wooded pass” which make up the “savage character” (Scott, 19) of his uncle’s estate. This bold description of an untamed wilderness perfectly characterizes Edward’s yet-untamed imagination”. Also, I found myself returning to passages of Mrs Dalloway, where Clarissa muses on her love for the city of London. London, with its metropolitan chaos, forms the very structure of Mrs Dalloway- just as the wild romantic countryside of the Highlands forms the structure for Waverley. This geographical aspect is something I hope to examine in greater detail in my thesis.
Our Wikipedia editing session came as something of a shock! We were assigned the task of choosing a page to edit that was of significant interest to us and relevant to our thesis. I chose the Byronic hero, the epitome of Romantic Era characterization that gave a definite code of identification to the romantic hero that had formerly been undefined. I found the research of such a pivotal literature figure very interesting-there was far more history behind the character than simply that of its namesake. For example, there were legions of devotees who saw to it that the character would have an infinite place in popular culture. The survival of the character had been mentioned and a few obvious literary influences, but the depth of the admiration responsible for its survival wasn’t mentioned. I mentioned this in my blog “Editing Wikipedia: A Wider Consideration”.
“Theserious“fandom”surroundingByronwasnotmentioned–strange, giventhatit played an integral part in keeping the interest in his work alive… One of my main sources of help was Fiona McCarthy’s Byron: Life And Legend. It had information aplenty regarding the fanatical admiration of Byron and his work that thrived long after the poet’s death. I was particularly interested in this focus on the social and cultural impact of the Byronic character, and believed it ought to be added to the synopsis on Wikipedia”.
This notion of the preservation of characterization is another aspect I have taken note of for my thesis. However, another piece of information I gathered in my research caught my eye in relation to a seminar we had had some months previously.
“Similarly, Charles J. Clancy’s article examining the potential for a Byronic heroine in Don Juan was also very interesting. To take a character that had long been an established male figure and researching the possibilityof a female character assuming the role broadens the perspective on the concept, and would be valuable to anybody researching the topic. Clancy makes apt connections between the character of Aurora Raby and the elements of the Byronic character”.
Casting this light on feminine representation and perspective was reminiscent of Dr Heather Laird’s seminar “Writing Irish Working-Class Mothers”. The seminar delved into the character of the mother, stripping away the idea of it being one-dimension.
“Their representations vary and are numerous … Dr Laird offered examples of the “good” dependable put-upon mother (The Countrywoman) and the “monstrous” mothers who destroy the ideology of nurturing maternal goodness in light of their impoverished circumstances (Katty The Flash). Various other examples, such as single motherhood and biological vs non-biological motherhood were also included”.
Juno And The Paycock (2016 Gate Production)
This layered concept of motherhood and the conflict of emotion it brings portrays women in an entirely different light, exposing the hardships in the efforts to survive and struggle for an identity that can be apart from the traditional family-orientated stereotype, “the enforcement of the aesthetic of the “good” wife and mother is something each of the characters have to live with in some form or the other. Whether they acquiesce to the concept or not, it is part of society’s make-up and therefore the prism through which they are looked upon. Such an ideal can have potentially fatal consequences; the performance of perpetual and unchanging dependability and endurance claims the life of Molly Baines in The Countrywoman. Juno in Sean O Casey’s play JunoAndThePaycock was also referred to as a figure who resigned herself to the aesthetic of the dependable wife for much of the play. Her decision to leave her reckless husband at the end of the play is abandonment of the ideal and conformant with it; she is leaving, but for the sake of her daughter”. I found myself identifying this idea of the complexity of womanhood with Waverley when comparing the compliant, dutiful Rose and passionately independent Flora, and also in MrsDalloway when examining Clarissa’s strained relationship with her daughter and sense of entrapment in her role as the “perfect hostess”.
Overall, I found the editing session very enjoyable, albeit a little nerve-wracking considering we were racing against the clock to get our task completed. The frantic tapping of the keyboards is probably my most prominent memory of that afternoon! Prior to the afternoon in question, we had each set up our own account with Wikipedia to enable us to make the required changes. Researching the materials and information necessary did take some time but it made the process of editing very straightforward on the day. Also, it raised the possibility of Wikipedia as a legitimate research source, should academics persist in editing it accurately and informatively. The process required precision of what needed to be changed or updated and my account of it in my blog was as follows:
“I began with the “Byronic Heroine”. As the page began with the characteristics of the Byronic figure, it seemed the more practical beginning. I also corrected a quote about the comparison with Werther by adding the text that made the correlation into the “Works Cited”. I then moved on to the section concerned with fans of the Byronic image-both the “fandom” and the Byronic heroine passages were given their own section heading and not added to sections that already existed. There was a literature passage present on the page which I could add the information I had researched in relation to Charles Dickens and the Byronic figure. As Charles Dickens’ writings had never really been associated with the idea, I thought it might be a useful addition to the list of literature comparisons present.”
Lord Byron
Overall, I believe we all found it an enjoyable and educating task-helped along, of course, by chocolate biscuits!
Of course, the grand finale that was the mini conference was probably the standout moment of the MA experience for a lot of us. We each chose a topic in relation to our thesis and put together a presentation. Sounds easy? Not when the twenty slides are restricted to twenty seconds, or Pecha Kucha to give it its proper term. My MA thesis title will be “The Preservation Of Literary Traditions In The Works Of Walter Scott And Virginia Woolf”. It is a broad title, so I narrowed my topic down to one element for the presentation- the role of the hero in the works of both authors, specifically the novels Waverley and Mrs Dalloway. Comparing two drastically different genres was challenging, and I’ll probably find it even more so when writing for my thesis begins in earnest. Taking into consideration the Modernists’ heavily critical stance of the Romantic genre (Virginia Woolf protested against Jane Austen being held sacred and above criticism in A Room Of One’s Own) looking for direct similarity was off the table. Or maybe not…..
By looking at the established blueprint or characteristics of the literary hero, I realised that what both authors had in common were their challenges to such anchored ideals. Again, I recorded this in my log about the conference, “Textualities 2016: A Conference Contemplation”.
“My topic was the heroic figure and its preservation and representation in literature in the various genres down through the years… it is such a complex figure, a seemingly stoic mould that was broken down and subjected to contemporary experimentation- which is what makes Scott and Woolf’s take on the figure so important”. So I looked for instances that they manipulated and changed the established “heroic figure” in their novels without doing away with it-for example, the possibility of a female hero. Again this reverted back to the issue of feminine representation, and over the course of the presentation I gave examples from both Waverley and Mrs Dalloway. In one of my more recent blogs I delved into the possible influences of such varied representations of female heroines in Woolf’s work and examined her relationship with the unconventional artist Dora Carrington through this prism:
“Woolf was intrigued by Carrington and documented with fond fascination the goings-on of her unorthodox lifestyle. Perhaps she sensed a kindred spirit. Carrington flew in the face of convention in every way possible in her personal life. Woolf’s writings fiercely upbraided the restrictions society imposed upon women, barring them from developing their true characters. Carrington’s complicated relationship with her own femininity and her guarded manner relating to her artwork depict someone who might well have been a heroine in one of Woolf’s novels”.
Surrounded by such strong-willed independent figures it is a fairly safe bet that Woolf did
nors Dalloway. The character of Flora in Waverley possesses a similar stubbornness to Sally’s; she is determined to live and die a rebel of the romantic cause, as alluded to in “The Geography Of Imagination”.
“The scene in the glen is her effectively acting out her own fantasy of patriotism which she wills with all her heart to come to fruition (Millgate, 49). She is determined to lead a life of romantic extremes, with a brilliantly executed performance from start to finish”.
Waverely’s Last Visit To Flora McIvor By An Unknown Artist
As to the conference itself it was fantastic. The aura of support and friendship was wonderful, and helped to calm the tension that inevitably occurs when standing up in front of a group to address them. “Question Time” was lively and informative; everybody took an interest in what others else had to say, and the wide range of topics kept it original. I noted this in my blog:
“ Regarding the range of topics covered in the conference, it was extensive and the originality of each presentation was amazing . From Beowulf to Shakespeare to Scott to Bronte to W.H.Auden to Akira to John Malkovich-the list was endless. The enthusiasm shone through, completely engaging the audience from start to finish and making it a very enjoyable experience”.
As I now contemplate the end of the course, I reflect happily on the experience. If I were to assess my blog and its relevance to my thesis, I would say it has largely helped me look at issues I wish to discuss in my thesis from different perspectives, and in greater detail.
Works Cited
Scott, Walter. WaverleyOrTisSixtyYearsSince. Oxford: University Press, 2015.
Millgate, Jane. Walter ScottTheMakingOfANovelist. Edinburgh: University Press, 1984.
Gerzina Gretchen. Carrington: A Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
Walshe Eibhear. “The Smile Of Livia: Elizabeth Bowen and Augustan Rome”. ClassicsIrelandVol.16. Dublin: Classical Association of Ireland, 2009. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/41408136>
What interested me most about the writings of Virginia Woolf were the various radical portrayals of women; no woman was completely comprised of a single characteristic, or “creed” of identity. We’ll never know for certain who exactly inspired her female characters. But there is little doubt there were plenty to choose from among her radical circle. One that caught my attention particularly was Dora Carrington, an artist and member of the Bloomsbury group that came to work for the Woolfs’ publishing press with her husband Ralph Partridge during the period in which MrsDalloway was being written. Already well-known to Woolf due to her devoted companionship with Lytton Strachey (one of Woolf’s closest friends) they became firm friends. Woolf was intrigued by Carrington and documented with fond fascination the goings-on of her unorthodox lifestyle. Perhaps she sensed a kindred spirit. Carrington flew in the face of convention in every way possible in her personal life. Woolf’s writings fiercely upbraided the restrictions society imposed upon women, barring them from developing their true characters. Carrington’s complicated relationship with her own femininity and her guarded manner relating to her artwork depict someone who might well have been a heroine in one of Woolf’s novels.
Carrington’s attitude to her femininity was mixed. To begin with, she went to some lengths to cast off a traditional feminine visage- in 1911 she took the drastic step of cutting her long hair in the style of a pageboy crop. It was an open declaration of revolt (Gerzina, 28) and the beginning of a lifelong courtship with an androgynous appearance. The object was simple-making her gender secondary to herself. She went a step further with her admittance in a letter to her then-lover Mark Gertler that she “hated being a girl” (Gerzina, 45). Her initial fear of sexual relations further emphasizes her inner turmoil over her identity as a woman. Gertler’s relentless attempts to persuade her to lose her virginity to him, coupled with pressure from the Bloomsbury group who assisted him in this venture, were repulsed fiercely by Carrington. Her naivety as a consequence of her upbringing in a Victorian home and her passion for freedom contributed to her view that such pressure on her was an attempt to assert ownership (Gerzina, 303). Woolf’s own tentative attitude to sexual relations seems to mirror those of Carrington’s-most likely she would have sympathized with Carrington’s predicament. MrsDalloway is full of connotations that imply marriage and the sexual relations that follow as a form of male assertion of ownership. Hugh’s forceful attempt to kiss Sally to recompense her daring to disagree with him in public recalls Carrington’s fear of sex as a physical violation. Similarly, Carrington’s allusions in her letters to her own bisexuality when referring to an encounter with a female friend, “I longed to possess her in some vague way” (Gerzina, 184) are oddly reminiscent of Clarissa’s confusion over her feelings for women “she did undoubtedly feel what men felt [for women]” (Woolf, 26). Thus, Carrington’s tumultuous relationship with her femininity reflects the restrictions of the society in which she lived, and such conflicted portraits of women Virginia Woolf was all too apt at portraying in her work.
Carrington In Slade School Of Art
Another crucial part of Carrington’s identity was her role as an artist. She was clearly an artist of outstanding ability, and it has long been in dispute why she remained in the shadows while other Bloomsbury artists touted acclaim for their endeavours. David Garnett particularly accuses Strachey and Partridge of not taking Carrington’s artist ambitions as seriously as they should have done (Elinor, 31). Michael Holroyd disputes this strenuously in his biography of Strachey, insisting that he always expressed his admiration and encouragement of her work (Elinor, 31). Whatever the case, Carrington did confess to feeling intellectually inadequate whilst in the company of the “Bloomsburies”; she even confessed to feeling “stupid and hopeless about [her]self” (Elinor, 31). However, while she did not publicly exhibit her work, a compilation of her work arranged by her brother Noel Carrington brought her talents to light. What was remarkable about Carrington’s work was her ability to transform a project of domesticity, such as the designs of her own homes in Tidmarsh and Ham Spray, into an expression of her own artistic prowess. Her apt hand at landscape is reflected in her combination of the sublime and banal; the swan designs on the windows carry a distinctly romantic element, and the oranges of the building also lend a touch of the exotic. However, this is balanced by the cool blue and green of the sky and field that encompasses it. Her unique vision of creating her own ideal space within a conventional domestic sphere might not evoke radical artwork in its assumed terms, but that she does so is innovative and clever, changing convention to suit her. One can only imagine how coveted Carrington’s work may have been in her lifetime had it been made public. MrsDalloway also reflects on how ambition has been cherished and yet inevitably been pushed to one side for the sake of the domestic through Clarissa, Peter, and Sally. Clarissa abandoned Peter, Sally and “all those plans” for the security offered by Richard Dalloway-and she is not without regret. It rears its head when she meets Peter once more, and reflects on how different her life could have been had she married him and pursued what they had once dreamed of. Perhaps Woolf was considering her own fellow female members of Bloomsbury and an anxiety for them to exercise their full potential.
Glass Painting By Carrington, Ham Spray HouseCarrington’s Landscape Portrait Of Tidmarsh
Carrington’ eventual suicide, borne of grief over the death of Strachey, was deeply distressing to Woolf-particularly as Woolf had been the last person to speak to her before she died. She expressed a relief and gratitude to being alive, little realizing she herself would take the same tragic course of action years later. However, Woolf and Carrington’s artistic endeavours stand aloft from their tumultuous personal lives-almost “a room of one’s own”, the sphere where society did not oppose or oppress them, but allowed full expression of the self.
Elinor Gillian. “Vanessa Bell And Dora Carrington: Bloomsbury Painters”. Women’s Art Journal Vol.5 No.1. News Brunswick: Women’s Art Inc, 1984. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1357882>
Gerzina Gretchen. Carrington: A Life. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
Dr. Eibhear Walshe’s seminar about Elizabeth Bowen and the complex concept of landscape in her work was very insightful examination of the thematic formulas she used to great effect. I knew her work vaguely, as I am studying the modernist novel as a part of my thesis work but had never studied her influences. There was great emphasis on physical and psychological geographical elements and Anglo-Irish identity as concepts of vital importance; the significance of a place of escape (however small a space), Bowen’s sense of instability within the country of her birth and her experimentation with interaction .
The examination of Bowen’s travel memoir ATimeInRome delves into the character of Livia and her predicament as the wife of Augustus Caesar. Bowen appeals to the reader to imagine the thoughts of Livia during that period; her relationship with her husband, the necessity of remaining stoic within the position she held and most poignantly her possible desire for an “Elsewhere” when the chaos of the political storm in which she lived became too difficult psychologically (Bowen, EBOOK). Dr Walshe noted a description of Livia’s private room in her villa Prima Porta, which Bowen had visited in the course of her travels in Rome and lavishly describes with acute detail. A slave probably designed the painted garden, but it was her haven, her place of security and peace. She completes the aesthetic as the owner who finds solace within its walls. This concept of an “Elsewhere” is highly reminiscent of the writings of Virginia Woolf, a close friend of Bowen. Woolf’s emphasis on the female space is present in all her writings, most particularly in MrsDalloway and ARoomOfOne’sOwn. This search for a space to thrive in likewise dominates Bowen’s work. The theme of shifting and unstable geography crops up again and again (Walshe, 29), suggesting an ongoing search for a place that can allow for authentic existence.
Bowen’s Anglo-Irish identity was also alluded to, as it is fundamental when considering her writings. It is clear that Bowen took immense pride in her heritage, yet her innate sense of her identity was fraught with uncertainty. TheHeatOfTheDay stands as a tribute to the stability and dependability of the Irish Big House (Walshe, 31). However, Bowen possesses an uncomfortable feeling that the privileges of her class are based on “inherent wrongs”-a clear insinuation of her sense of a lack of entitlement to ownership. They are the “conquerors” (Walshe, 34) of another’s land. With this in mind, Bowen’s Court appears to have been a most complicated inheritance. Nonetheless, it was the seat of Bowen’s family for generations, and her eventual decision to sell it when she arrived back in Ireland can have been no easy choice. In spite of her asserted relief that the eventual demolition of the building had been a “clean end” (Walshe, 38), it had been her “one private image, one peaceful scene” for many years (Walshe, 38). The loss of such a steadfast symbol of her identity again points to the instability of assured place that Bowen reflects on.
Dr Walshe also mentioned Bowen’s role as a novelist in a modernist context. I briefly mentioned her connection with Virginia Woolf earlier in the blog. Her links to her contemporaries did not end their however. It seems there was an influence via Joyce as is evident from her essay on Finnegan’sWake. If we were to look at all three novelists and contemplate what they have in common, it would be delegating speech to a secondary role in the narrative and allowing free-flowing consciousness to take centre stage. Bowen’s essay from 1945, entitled “Notes On Writing A Novel”, insisted that “Speech is what characters do to each other” (Teekell, 63). This entirely different definition of interaction places the responsibilities of carrying the novel successfully firmly on the shoulders of the characters’ “silent” moments-they must be just as profound as any dialogue that may take place. Woolf and Joyce use this to great effect in Ulysses and MrsDalloway-the dialogue acts as rather a brief, continuous interval between the flow of the stream of consciousness narrative of each of the respective characters. With this modernist influence in mind, Bowen’s experimentation with interaction places her among the innovators of the “renaissance” of the novel form.
In conclusion, the seminar was very informative about Bowen and her work. As part of my thesis will be dealing with modernist writers and their various styles, I look forward to researching more about Bowen and her place within this circle.
Walshe Eibhear. “The Smile Of Livia: Elizabeth Bowen and Augustan Rome”. ClassicsIrelandVol.16. Dublin: Classical Association of Ireland, 2009. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/41408136>
Teekell Anna. “Elizabeth Bowen And Language At War”. NewHiberniaReview/IrisEireannachNuaVol.15No.2. Michigan: University Of St. Thomas, 2001. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/23068127 >
Today was the day we’d all been waiting for-the Textualities conference! Fair to say we were (and are!) all fairly nervous! However, I think the atmosphere has de-tensioned over the last hour or so, thank heavens! Waiting, I think, is probably the focus of the copious nerves. Once you are up at the podium, the nerves go once you begin to talk. We are going group by group of four or five, and each group of speakers is then invited to answer questions from the floor. We began at 9.30 this morning, and are currently about half-way through the conference.
Having been a fervent fan of all things Bronte since I was thirteen, I was looking forward to Denise’s presentation on the theme of isolation-and I wasn’t disappointed! Denise gave a precise and informative account of the governess figure in particular and how it is the personification of isolation.She focuses on Villette, which was an original take. Mostly the focus rests on Bronte’s best-known novel Jane Eyre when dealing with the governess figure, so it was great to see Villette in the spotlight. I found the examination of the consolation of imagination to the lone governess figure particularly interesting. The female figure seems to exert a form of independence through this, even though she is in a lonely predicament. It is seen in Jane Eyre, but in Villette it is most pronounced. Unlike Jane, Lucy is left bereft of any consolation in human form towards the novel’s conclusion, so all she has to turn to is her own imagination once more. She even ends the novel with an explicit reference to imagination, “Let the reader imagine…” It is a stark admission that it is only through the imagination that she can receive any emotional fulfillment. Equally interesting is the comparison with the Henry James novel The Turn Of The Screw, which I had never heard before, but in retrospect is very accurate!
On the 3rd February, our class hosted a Wikipedia editing session. We were each to choose a page of significant interest to us, research missing information and add anything we thought interesting and relevant to the subject of the page. After some deliberation, I chose to edit the page that explained the concept of the Byronic Hero. The Byronic hero was, as the name stated, a character in fiction that displayed traits similar to that of the poet Lord George Gordon Byron or the main characters in his poetry and novels. The Byronic hero was a dark, brooding male character, with an air of carrying the burden of a painful past- a past which was always the main revelation of the novel in question. While the Wikipedia page gave ample information regarding the character’s origins and place in literature, I found there were certain aspects that were overlooked. For example, the possibility of a Byronic heroine was not addressed, when the character exists in one of Byron’s most famous works. In the interests of gender balance, I believed it was only fair to afford it a mention, at least! Likewise, the serious “fandom” surrounding Byron was not mentioned-strange, given that it played an integral part in keeping the interest in his work alive. In relation to technical issue of citation, one or two books were not cited- otherwise, there was very little I could find fault with citation-wise, surprisingly. So it appeared that my task would mostly be giving more depth by adding the new information I had researched on the topic.
One of my main sources of help was Fiona McCarthy’s Byron: Life And Legend. It had information aplenty regarding the fanatical admiration of Byron and his work that thrived long after the poet’s death. I was particularly interested in this focus on the social and cultural impact of the Byronic character, and believed it ought to be added to the synopsis on Wikipedia. Similarly, Charles J. Clancy’s article examining the potential for a Byronic heroine in Don Juan was also very interesting. To take a character that had long been an established male figure and researching the possibility of a female character assuming the role broadens the perspective on the concept, and would be valuable to anybody researching the topic. Clancy makes apt connections between the character of Aurora Raby and the elements of the Byronic character.
Commencing operation Wikipedia edit! After a change of location, the editing began. We were also to regularly tweet during the session using #EditWikiLit. I should mention here that I only recently joined Twitter, so I initially found the prospect of airing my opinions publicly a tad nerve-racking. That said, the blogging has eased it somewhat. I began with the “Byronic Heroine”. As the page began with the characteristics of the Byronic figure, it seemed the more practical beginning. I also corrected a quote about the comparison with Werther by adding the text that made the correlation into the “Works Cited”. I then moved on to the section concerned with fans of the Byronic image-both the “fandom” and the Byronic heroine passages were given their own section heading and not added to sections that already existed. There was a literature passage present on the page which I could add the information I had researched in relation to Charles Dickens and the Byronic figure. As Charles Dickens’ writings had never really been associated with the idea, I thought it might be a useful addition to the list of literature comparisons present.
The task was challenging; you were constantly watching the clock, and the referencing took a while! Nevertheless, I enjoyed it very much. It was related to a literature concept I have a great deal of interest in, and I enjoyed researching what information would be useful to the page. Also, to the kindly person who passed those biscuits around-thanks a million. You know who you are!
Works Cited
Clancy, Charles J. “Aurora Raby In Don Juan: A Byronic Heroine”. Keats-Shelley Journal Vol. 28. New York: Keats-Shelley Association Of America, 1979.
Harvey, William W. “Charles Dickens And The Byronic Tradition”. Nineteenth-CenturyFiction Vol. 24 No.3. California: University Press, 1969.
McCarthy, Fiona. Byron: Life And Legend. London: John Murray, 2002.
Thorslev, Peter L. “The Byronic Hero And Heroic Tradition”. The Byronic Hero. Minnesota: University Press, 1962.
Dr Heather Laird’s presentation, “Writing Irish Working Class Mothers” was both informative and interesting. I had been familiar with the representation of women in Irish writing, but the subject of writing about working class mothers delved into the topic in a unique manner. Their representations vary and are numerous in number. Dr Laird offered examples of the “good” dependable put-upon mother (The Countrywoman) and the “monstrous” mothers who destroy the ideology of nurturing maternal goodness in light of their impoverished circumstances (Katty The Flash). Various other examples, such as single motherhood and biological vs non-biological motherhood were also included. Particularly in the case of adopted motherhood, I found their subject matter a revelation.
What I particularly liked about the presentation was the focus on the emotional strain that the women in such domestic situations suffered. I found the study of the role of Molly Baines in The Countrywoman particularly provoking. Crushed from all sides by the Church, her violent husband and her children and yet remaining steadfast in her role, one can truly imagine what trauma such a stance would inevitably evoke. I mentioned in the beginning I found the case of the non-biological mother/infertility interesting. I haven’t read anything that deals directly with this topic, and found the examination of its inclusion in the novel Mother Of Pearl by Mary Morrissy enlightening. The examination of not only the pressure on a mother, but society’s determination to hurry women into the role of the mother told a story of a vicious ring of oppression on a single woman leading to the oppression in the demands in the role as a mother. This image of a vicious circle, combined with the physical trauma of illness, makes it a compelling topic in terms of the examination of the emotional struggle of Irish working class women.
What I found effective about the presentation of the topic was the continuation of the aesthetic/ideological aspect that continued throughout. Each of the women in the novels discussed are confined within a particular “bracket” by the society in which they live. The enforcement of the aesthetic of the “good” wife and mother is something each of the characters have to live with in some form or the other. Whether they acquiesce to the concept or not, it is part of society’s make-up and therefore the prism through which they are looked upon. Such an ideal can have potentially fatal consequences; the performance of perpetual and unchanging dependability and endurance claims the life of Molly Baines in The Countrywoman. Juno in Sean O Casey’s play Juno And The Paycock was also referred to as a figure who resigned herself to the aesthetic of the dependable wife for much of the play. Her decision to leave her reckless husband at the end of the play is abandonment of the ideal and conformant with it; she is leaving, but for the sake of her daughter.
Overall I enjoyed the presentation very much. It covered a great many angles of the concept of Irish working class mothers in writing, giving each enough depth and explanation. I look forward to reading more on the topic.
Anne Of The Thousand Days dominated the Academy Awards nominations of 1970; it was indisputably a success despite some critics’ misgivings. However, the focus was on one performance in particular… Genevieve Bujold’s impassioned portrayal as Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and mother of the future Queen Elizabeth II, was the talking point of all who had seen the movie. In my opinion, all anybody has to do is watch her vicious, bitter yet triumphant face-off with her husband in the dying minutes of the film and they will immediately rank it as one of the finest speeches in film. “My Elizabeth shall be Queen!” she rages. “Get yourself a son on that sweet pale girl if you can [a reference to her successor, Jane Seymour] and hope that it will live… but Elizabeth shall rule a greater England than you could ever have built…and my blood will have been well spent!” Historically inaccurate it may be and uncharacteristically feminist for a 16th century-based drama, yet it makes for compelling viewing. Bujold’s character faces her death defiant and refusing to submit to the patriarchal figures who have orchestrated her downfall, her own husband amongst them.
I will return again to a point I made- the speech is unabashedly feminist, and ahead of its time. It was over the course of the 1960s that the women’s movement was on the rise, and the concept of feminist film studies was born (Neal, 856). Molly Huskell’s From Reverence To Rape was a revolutionary text written during the period that tackled the budding subject of feminist film theory; it is now seen as one of its key texts. It examined the role women played in film and was heavily critical of confining actresses to conservative, passive roles. Huskell declared herself “a film critic first, a feminist second”, asserting that she was treating acting as an individual body, not political. However, she insisted that degrading a female point of view was a deficiency that needed to be dealt with (Huskell, ix). In light of growing support for feminist film theory, it is perhaps no small coincidence that the writers elected to bestow their heroine with such an evocative piece of dialogue.
It is also of interest to note that one of the writers of the screenplay was a woman; Bridget Boland, an Irish-English writer was teamed with John Hale and Richard Sokolove. An Oxford graduate, Boland came with an experienced back catalogue; in 1956 she had adapted the screenplay for another Academy Award nominated film, Tolstoy’s War And Peace, which starred Audrey Hepburn in what was to be one of the acclaimed actress’s breakthrough roles. While little is written about Boland’s part in the making of the film, a rather telling interview from 1987 gives a hint about where her loyalties lay in terms of her writing’s subject matter, “I am bored by domestic problems, and am allergic to domestic settings…I succeed best with heavy drama” (Berney, 82). Watching Bujold’s fiery and irrepressible depiction of Anne and her blunt, unforgiving mannerisms, viewers would agree heartily.
Bujold’s captivating performance earned her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination; reviews raved about the power with which she had orchestrated her depiction of one of the most famous women in history, with the New York Times singling her out as giving the “best, most complex performance of the film” (Erickson). Yet it was the speech at the end that remains the most memorable; a slip of a girl, uncaring about her impending demise but stubbornly determined to have the final say. Feminist intended or not, that is the impression it leaves, and the image it imparts on the audience. And in my opinion, an incredibly uplifting one.
WORKS CITED
Contemporary British Dramatists Edition 1. K.A. Berney (Ed). Michigan: St. James Press, 1994.
Routledge International Encyclopaedia Of Women: Global Women’s Issues And Knowledge. Cheris Kramarae and Dale Spender (Eds). Oxon: Routledge, 2000.
Hi! My name is Rebecca Fitzgerald and I am an MA English student at University College Cork. I completed my BA degree in Joint Honours English and History last year, and decided to pursue my interest in English after examining the Modernities course and finding it contained a great many topics that interested me. Thus far, it has exceeded my expectations; the course offers a far deeper understanding to the 1700s-1900s texts I am inclined to favour in terms of philosophy and genre and has encouraged me to adopt a far more attentive stance. Thesis-wise, it offers a great deal of scope and I am actually looking forward to putting my topic together. Rarely have I ever looked forward to an assignment so much!
I hope to have a career in publishing in the future, so over the course of this year the aim is to get as much experience as possible in any field that bears relation to it. During the summer I did voluntary work in a research library and gained valuable experience in IT skills, archive research and preservation of documents. Of course, the eventual goal is to secure an internship in a publishing company, but considering the difficulty in gaining a place, every bit of experience I get in the meantime is of vital importance. Literature has been my core interest from a very young age, and making a career from it would be fantastic.
My interest is primarily in Romantic Literature and its origins/influences. The entire period appeared to be one of enormous cultural upheaval in every form. Art, politics, literature- all were affected in some form or another. Nationalism experienced a surge in prominence, which I am keen to examine in my thesis. Anybody who knows me will testify I am a hardcore Jane Austen fan, and have been since the age of thirteen. But over the course of my English BA, I discovered that during Austen’s lifetime, there were numerous other women novelists that were just as popular, yet escaped similar recognition. So I eagerly researched the novels of these women authors, and found that the manner in which they were simply excluded from the literary canon, particularly in university coursework, was unfathomable. Last year, I completed a seminar essay on Mary Hays, a novelist mocked for the apparent excessive sentiment in her popular novel The Memoirs Of Emma Courtney. Sentimental it was, but what was overlooked completely was her passionate argument for feminine personal expression, which in terms of her narrative style was given far greater emphasis. Modernist studies last year also offered insight into writers into Virginia Woolf, keen to smash the Romantic/Victorian conventions that seemed to consign women writers in to “the novel of manners”. Safe to say, a gender argument will find its way into my thesis in some form or another!
Well, that’s my introduction! To sum up the contents of my forthcoming blogs, it will most probably remain within the confines of literature’s place within arts and culture, but the topics could vary. I am quite nervous as I have never done a personal blog before. Oh well, here it goes!
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Rebecca Fitzgerald 