（英语语言文学专业论文）弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫与传记文学.pdf

ii 摘 要 作为作家和评论家，费吉尼亚伍尔夫为二十世纪的现代文学作出了巨大的贡 献，并且她也一直尝试着探索虚构的艺术。她认为传统的写作手法无法捕捉到真实 的生活。因此，她提出传记不仅要追求真实，同时还必须追求个性。她认为二十世 纪的传记已经发生变化，传记家不再是传主的奴仆，而是拥有自己权利的艺术家。 她相信虚构和想象的加入会更有效地表现人物的个性，这样就更趋向于真实。本文 通过对伍尔夫的罗杰弗莱传 、 弗来希 、 奥兰多 、 达洛维夫人 、 到灯塔 去和海浪作品的分析，力求进一步揭示伍尔夫如何利用传记理论平衡作品中 的真实和虚构成分。 本文由七部分组成。引言部分简单介绍了伍尔夫及主要作品研究。第一章介绍 了伍尔夫的传记理论，她把传记和虚构相结合，创造出一种新的写作方式，她认为 那越来越真实的生活就是我们虚构的生活；第二章分析了伍尔夫的传记作品罗 杰弗莱传 ， 罗杰弗莱传是伍尔夫根据朋友弗莱改编的一部传记，其中真实 成分居主；第三章进一步分析了伍尔夫的小说传记弗来希 ；第四章分析了传记 小说奥兰多 ；第五章重点分析了伍尔夫的意识流小说： 达洛维夫人 ， 到灯 塔去和海浪 。伍尔夫把传记理论在这些作品中加以具体运用，并且伴随着传记 的成分也就是真实成分在这些作品中的逐渐减少，虚构的成分却在逐渐增多，但正 是虚构的加入使作品更趋向于真实。最后一部分是对论文内容的简要总结。 关键词关键词：弗吉尼亚伍尔夫；传记理论；传记；小说传记；传记小说；传记性小说 i abstract virginia woolf, both as a writer and a critic, tries to explore the art of fiction, and her efforts contributed a lot to the modernism literature of the twentieth century. she believes the real life will not be captured by just using the traditional methods. she suggests that biography has served two aims, the search for truth and for personality. woolf holds that the 20th century has been accompanied by a change in biography and the biographer no longer acts as the servant of the subject but as equal as artist in his/her own right. woolf believes that a little fiction mixed with fact can be made to transmit personality very effectively. the thesis aims to reveal how woolf balances truth and fiction through close reading on her roger fry: a biography, flush: a biography, orlando: a biography, mrs. dalloway, to the lighthouse and the waves. the whole thesis is composed of seven parts: the first part presents an overview of virginia woolf and research situation of her works. chapter one introduces woolfs biography theory; she creates a new writing mode combining the features of biography and fiction. she holds our real life is truer when it is accompanied by fiction. the analysis on woolfs biography roger fry will be introduced in the second chapter. roger fry: a biography is a biography that based on woolfs old friend fry, in which the factual elements plays a dominate role. the third chapter involves woolfs novel-biography flush: a biography. chapter four is about her biography-novel orlando: a biography. chapter five emphasizes on woolfs stream of consciousness novels mrs. dalloway, to the lighthouse and the waves. virginia woolf applies her biography theory into her works in which the biographical or factual elements are decreasing while the fictional elements are increasing. the last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. key words: virginia woolf; biography theory; biography; novel-biography; biography-novel; biographical novels 39 承承 诺诺 书书 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是在导师指导 下独立完成的，学位论文的知识产权属于山西大学。如 果今后以其他单位名义发表与在读期间学位论文相关的 内容，将承担法律责任。除文中已经注明引用的文献资 料外，本学位论文不包括任何其他个人或集体已经发表 或撰写过的成果。 学位论文作者（签章） ： 200 年 月 日 introduction 1 introduction virginia woolf was born on the 25th january, 1882. being an english novelist and biographer, she was regarded as one of the most important modernist in the twentieth century. virginia woolf was born in london. her father was sir leslie stephen who was a famous author and critic. her mother was julia prinsep stephen who was born in india to dr. john and maria pattle jackson and then moved to england. when virginia woolf was young, she was taught by her parents. they lived a wealthy and comfortable life. though virginia didnt get formal education which offered to males, she was able to make full use of her fathers library, to take a close look at his writing talent, and to be surrounded by intellectual conversation. virginias mother was more delicate and left more emotional influences on her. under the influence of her parents strong personalities, virginia felt depressed for a long time. but she developed her own personality later. her works involved biographies as well as some stream of consciousness novels which do not just express one characters inner mind, but also all characters ideas about the same problems. virginia woolf is a special writer that she didnt write in traditional but new way. she determined to create a new writing method that allowed her to disappear from her work. in addition to that, she hoped her work can create and wake up contemplation of human beings. she changed her way of writing from traditional method into a search of inner world of people. her great talents were showed in her works. virginia woolf thinks the real life cannot be captured just by using the traditional methods. because the real life in her eyes is changeable, unknown, free and like a bright halo of the spiritual world of human being. all her creative works aim to explore the new way to express her understanding of life. she tried to use stream of consciousness and to express inner mind and spiritual world of the characters in her works. it is more likely that an agreement has been reached regarding her as a novelist. besides she also created a lot of biographies with new techniques. virginia woolfs characteristics as a novel writer are likely to hide her importance: in the english language, woolf is no doubt the most important lyrical novelist. her novels are based on lots of experiments: the plot developed according to the characters flow of mind. the character inner thoughts are expressed as the plot goes. moreover, the virginia woolf and biography 2 environment and the atmosphere account too. for example, mrs. dalloway (1925) tells a story about a middle-aged woman who wants to hold a party. another main character is septimus warren smith who is a veteran returned from the first world war, and he had very deep psychological problems. to the lighthouse (1927) is about ramsay familys anticipation to visit a lighthouse and the ease family tensions. the novel evokes meditation on people and their minds during the war. it also depicts womens condition and how they are oppressed by society that allows men to get emotional strength from them. the waves (1931) describes a group of six friends reflect their lives in interior monologues which make it more likely a prose than a novel that centered on plot. recently, studies of virginia woolf have centered on feminist and lesbian themes, such as the collection of critical essays in 1997, virginia woolf: lesbian readings, edited by eileen barrett and patricia cramer. louise a. desalvo told the sexual abuse woolf went though when she was a young woman in her book virginia woolf: the impact of childhood sexual abuse on her life and work. woolfs work is also studied for its insight into war, class, and modern british society. roger fry is one of the books virginia woolf wrote. it is an account of frys aesthetics, and one of her many experiment on biography. flush: a biography, an imaginative biography of elizabeth barrett brownings cocker spaniel. it is a genre that combines fact and fiction that was published by virginia woolf in 1933. as for orlando, overseas critics start the research much earlier and their topics are more diverse. some feminist critic pay attention on its feminist reading, especially with androgyny and most of them focus on the gender and writing. and others lay eyes on gypsies, lesbian themes, and orlandos change of sex. the relationship between woolf and vita are got more attention. there are also some other scholars studying orlando from other aspects. such as leon edels time and constance huntings the technique of persuasion in orlando, which concentrates on the themes of time and language? frank baldaanzas orlando and the sakvilles(1967) looks deeply into the background of the novels environment and made a discussion on woolfs various and unstable selfhood. and nancy cervettis journal of modern literature: in the breeches, petticoats, and pleasures of orlando suggests that woolf put more attention on the issues of gender with regard to dressing. dress is a persistent theme all over orlando, different clothes emphasize on different desire and sexual relations. apart from these book reviews and introduction 3 critical essays, karen r. lawrences modern fiction studies: orlandos voyage out (1992), and jean e. kennards power and sexual ambiguity: the dreadnought hoax, the voyage out, mrs. dalloway and orlando (1996) have approached the book from different angles such as sexuality and history. chinese scholars have also contributed a lot to the study of orlando. since woolf was introduced into china in 1930s by ye gongchao who translated her novel the mark on the wall. scholars have paid a lot of their attentions to this charming and attractive woman. soon after that, they translated her more essays and novels as well as made some comments on them, especially her famous stream of consciousness. after 1980s, feminist criticism became cropping up as a new research approach and orlando was taken as an evident example. in conclusion, both the overseas and domestic studies on virginia woolfs works mainly concentrated on her stream of consciousness. only several papers touch psychology, literary styles, history and biography. however, with more and more researchers focusing on her biography theory, the study on her works becomes flourishing. the thesis aims to further understand woolfs biography theory through the analysis of the biographical elements in her works. virginia woolf and biography 4 chapter one virginia woolfs biography theory virginia woolf would like to create a new theory of biography, just as she wrote in a letter to vita that said she wanted to revolutionize biography in a night. woolfs idea of biography revolution came from the influence of her father, who is first editor of the dictionary of national biography, she wanted to break up with the traditional victorian biographical modes and reconstruct fiction and biography in her own works. in earlier periods of the evolution of woolfs ideas about biographical form, she had clearly states her despise on biographys total control on fact and got away from a strict obedience of reality. in some people, woolf published an essay, the new biography(1927), in which woolf suggests that biography has served two aims, the search for truth and for personality, which she translates into granite (fact)and rainbow(fiction). woolf feels that in the 20th century there is a change in biography that the biographer no longer acts as the servant of the subject but as equal as artist in his/her own right. woolf believes that people should mixed face with fiction to some extent. all woolfs creative works are to explore the means to express her understanding of life. she developed and innovated the theories and put forward the importance of peoples inner world. the new biography involves a lot of definite ideas concerning what the biographer can and can not express his or her subject. woolf believes that: “a little fiction mixed with fact can be made to transmit personality very effectively” (woolf, 1924: 233). from woolfs point of view, to portray the characters inner world is more important. woolf once said that the reality exists on the bottom of peoples hearts and life is the mental activities of people. chapter two biography 5 chapter two biography 2.1 brief introduction of roger fry: a biography this is one of the books virginia woolf wrote. it is an account of frys aesthetics, and one of her many experiments on biography. actually, much of the text is direct quotations from frys own journals and his letters to friends. roger eliot fry was born on the 14th december 1866, he was an english artist and critic, and a member of the bloomsbury group. his reputation was established as a scholar of the old masters. he was the first man to raise public awareness of modern art in britain, he was described by the art historian kenneth clark as “incomparably the greatest influence on taste since ruskin. in so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by roger fry”. he was born in london. as the son of the judge edward fry, he grew up in a wealthy quaker family. before going into cambridge, he was educated at clifton college. fry studied at kings college, cambridge, where he was a member of the cambridge apostles. after taking a first grade in the natural science tripos, he went to paris and then italy to study art. at last, he specialized in landscape painting. he married the artist helen coombe in 1896, and they had two children later, pamela and julian. nevertheless, helen soon became seriously mentally ill. in 1910, she was committed to a mental institution, where she remained for the rest of her life. fry took over the care of their children with the help of his sister, joan fry. in 1911, fry began an affair with vanessa bell, who was then experiencing a difficult recovery from the birth of her son quentin. fry offered her the tenderness and care she felt was lacking from her husband, clive bell. they remained close friends all their life, even though rogers heart was broken in 1913 when vanessa fell in love with duncan grant and decided to live forever with him. after short affairs with such artists as nina hamnett and josette coatmellec, roger too found happiness with helen maitland anrep. she became his emotional anchor for the rest of his life; though they never married. virginia woolf and biography 6 2.2 the biographical elements in roger fry: a biography rogers family background was introduced at the beginning of the book as radical quakers, a quite strict upbringing as well as his interest in science and the natural world. he was an industrious young man who blossomed when he went to cambridge and was elected to the semi-secret society of apostles who were what would be called free-thinkers. he was older than the other members of this group, and always highly respected by them. despite his excellent performance in science, he changed to the study of art and travelled to italy and france on a sort of self-made grand tour to bring himself into contact with the masters. in addition to her obvious sympathy with his artistic ideas, woolfs approach is largely descriptive. there is some attempt at the analysis of her works. and we have to put up with her silence on personal matters to a degree which is almost making people angry. being a young man, fry develops a relationship with a woman who is old enough to be his mother. she teaches him the art of love, and they remain friends to the end of life. however, this relationship is described in less than a paragraph, and the woman isnt even named. ever after cambridge, his problem was still how to make a living from art, and he was still living on an income from his father even when he got married to helen coombe who is also a lover of art. woolf makes a great deal of his putting up the 1910 post-impressionist exhibition which caused such a noise. woolf claimed that can change human nature. she regards this as a turning point in frys life, but the strange thing is that as soon as he joins the bloomsbury group she remains annoyingly coy about his personal life. you would never know from her account that he had an affair with her sister vanessa bell. his life as a human being is replaced by the artistic debates that raged about post-impressionism, frys own artistic theories, and the foundation of the omega workshop. a lot of famous figures flit across the pages - george bernard shaw, elgar, lytton strachey, andr gide - but we are as far away from his personal life as ever. even his late life affair with helen anrep is mentioned almost additionally - though he was to live with her for the rest of his life meantime his wife died slowly from a brain disease in a retreat at york. you can understand why woolf found his critical theory interesting. he was searching for a synthesis which would combine visual art with literature, and he was modest enough to admit that his aesthetic opinions were totally subjective and limited. but agreeing that aesthetic understanding is a pre-eminently chapter two biography 7 spiritual function does not imply for me any connection with morals. at first the contemplation of truth is likewise a spiritual function but is i judge entirely a-moral. indeed i should be apt to deny to morals or any spiritual qualitythey are rather the mechanism of civil lifethe rules by which life in groups can be performed. and they are therefore only concerned directly with behaviors. roger fry is a biography that based on woolfs old friend fry, in which the factual elements plays a dominate role. virginia woolf and biography 8 chapter three novelbiography 3.1 brief introduction of flush: a biography flush: a biography, an imaginative biography of elizabeth barrett brownings cocker spaniel, is a cross-genre combine fiction with nonfiction by virginia woolf published in 1933. written after the completion of her emotionally draining the waves, the work returned woolf to the imaginative consideration of english history that she had begun in orlando: a biography, and to which she would return in between the acts. commonly read as a modernist consideration of city-life seen through the eyes of a dog, flush is regarded as a harsh criticism of the supposedly unnatural ways of living in the city. the figure of elizabeth barrett browning in the text is often read as an analogue for other female intellectuals, like woolf herself, who suffered from illness, feigned or real, as a part of their status as female writers. most insightful and experimental are woolfs emotional and philosophical views described in flushs thoughts. as he spends more time with barrett browning, flush becomes emotionally and spiritually connected to the poetess and both begin to understand each other des