English literature: Virginia Woolf and James Joyce use new techniques for expressing the complex inner life

English literature: Virginia Woolf and James Joyce use new techniques for expressing the complex inner life

Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are two modernist writers becouse they both use new techniques. V.Woolf is born in 1882 in London,she loses her mother and her sister so she begins to love the sea becouse it rappresentes harmony and resolution of conflicts with death. She belongs to Bloomsbury group,a meeting of writers and artists who analyzes the stream of consciusness. They also practise omosexual affears. V.Woolf writes "the voyage out","Mrs dalloway","to the lighthouse"," Orlando" and "the common reader".She wanted to give voice to feelings and memories,so the events are not important like the emotions.The point of view is inside the characters' mind.

V.Woolf uses the interior monologue that is a verbal expression of physic phenomenon. It has two levels of narration: one external to the characters' mind and one internal. There are two kind of interior monologue:

the indirect interior monologue in which the writer never lets the character's thoughts flow without control and manteins a logical and grammatical order.

The interior monologue where the character's thought flow freely

V.Woolf uses the indiretc interior monologue,so she uses punctuation and control her characters' mind

She writes "Orlando" a story about Vita West with whom she had an homosexual story.

It' s a biography baginning in 1500 and continuing for 400 yers. Orlando,the main character changes his sex,and the objectiv of V.Woolf is to analyze how the different age accept it.Orlando has more difficoult during the victorian age becouse in that period people think that women's role was to stay at home with children.

In "a room of one's own" V.Woolf analyzes the condition of woman who decides to write. She describes women's problem as economic dependence,marriage and prejudices at school.

In this work V.Woolf describe also who are women and what they look like,what they write and what is said about them.

In "Mrs Dalloway" she writes about Clarissa Dalloway who goes to buy some flowers for a party and see Mr Septimus with his wife Lucrezia. Septimus is a veteran of the war with a mental disorder becouse he saw his best friend death.                    

They are going to a psycologist. Mrs Dalloway receives Peter's visit,an hold friend, and than he knows about Septimus therapy that consists in meeting with a doctor in a clinic.So Septimus who doesn't accepts tha cure,try to kill himself.

The story takes place in one day in a small area of London. The protagonist,Clarissa Dalloway spents her morning thinking about her and her life,remembering her past or her experiences.

The omniscent narrator disappears

James Joyce is a modernist writer too.He was born in Dublin in 1882 and,after married Nora Bernacle,they went in Italy and they had two children. He writes "Dubliners","a portrait of the artist as a youg man", "exiles". He has an hostility towards the church for its  unofficial doctrine and becouse it takes possession on irish mind.

He uses a new techniques: the impersonality learned by Gustave Flaubert and Baudelaire. He presents life objectively for rending a true image of it. He uses more points of view and he explores impressions and emotions of characters using ephipany which is a particular moment in which some actions that were in our memory go to the mind with emotions and impressions.

In his work "Dubliners" he writes about Dublin as the centre of paralysis:all people are oppressed by culture,religion and politic.

He writes fifteen short sotries about lower middle class and every story analyzes people at different ages:the firt tale is about children,than he writes about childhood and,at the end,he speaks about death. But we can see how every people are victim of religion and politic,they can save themselves only with the escape,but it's not possible becouse they don't know in what conditions they live

He uses the interior monologue and the free direct speech so all characters present themselves

In his masterpiece "Ulysses" J.Joyce writes about Leopold Bloom who leaves his home for breakfast and during the day he attends a funeral and meets S.Dedalus who becomes his adoptive son and who saves his "father" from a brothel and takes him home.We find the same structure of the odyssey.Bloom is Ulysses,Dedalus is Telemacus who is pure intellect,Molly (Bloom's wife) is Penelope,she's sensual and rappresents the femininity.

J.Joyce is more interested in language expreimentation in fact there's no language fluidity.The events are confused becouse he explores them from different points of view.He uses the interior monologue as V.Woolf but he doesn't takes control of his characters' thoughts.