Abstract
This paper examines narrative, biography, and selfhood in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). The novel, a “play-poem,” follows six friends’ monologues from childhood to death. I analyze aspiring writer Bernard from his childhood of telling stories about companions to his inability to narrate his autobiography, arguing that he fails because he has no self to narrate. Referencing Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology’s (1974) theory of the deconstructed self identifiable only in conversation, I argue that Bernard destroys his identity by silencing his friends and becoming the sole speaker; Woolf’s biographical theory thereby establishes the communal self, prefiguring tenets of postmodern philosophy.
Thesis Record URL
Location
Buller Hallway
Start Date
3-6-2015 2:30 PM
End Date
3-6-2015 4:00 PM
P-20 “The story which he never stops telling himself”: Autobiography, Narrative Community, and the Deconstruction of Selfhood in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves
Buller Hallway
This paper examines narrative, biography, and selfhood in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves (1931). The novel, a “play-poem,” follows six friends’ monologues from childhood to death. I analyze aspiring writer Bernard from his childhood of telling stories about companions to his inability to narrate his autobiography, arguing that he fails because he has no self to narrate. Referencing Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology’s (1974) theory of the deconstructed self identifiable only in conversation, I argue that Bernard destroys his identity by silencing his friends and becoming the sole speaker; Woolf’s biographical theory thereby establishes the communal self, prefiguring tenets of postmodern philosophy.
Acknowledgments
J.N. Andrews Honors Scholar,Undergraduate Research Scholar, and Earhart Emerging Scholar
Advisor: Beverly Matiko, English