Advisory Committee Chair
Margaret J Jessee
Advisory Committee Members
Daniel Siegel
Kyle Grimes
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2021
Degree Name by School
Master of Arts in Education (MAE) School of Education
Abstract
Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of chronotope, or time-space, encompasses the idea that time and space cannot be separated from one another; they are intertwined. This concept of Bahktin’s is seen in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, and Orlando because of Woolf’s aim to more accurately depict the reality of modern life, something she deems necessary for modern writers in her essay “Modern Fiction.” Woolf makes use of various narrative techniques to experiment with her illustration of everyday life where she focuses heavily on the depiction of time-space through her illustration of consciousness. Woolf is able to add emotion to time-space through the idea of being “too late” or “too lateness,” a feeling that many of Woolf’s characters experience in her novels. Being “too late” is seen in each of Woolf’s aforementioned texts, as it is an integral part of how one experiences life. Within each of her works, Woolf exhibits time-space-emotion through her unique crafting of time, space, and consciousness. By constructing her novels in this way, Woolf is able to show readers the complexity of the relationships that exist within them. The emotional layer Woolf employs serves to present the varying and complex emotions one associates with a particular memory. Memories, in this case, can be distant or recent as Woolf highlights how each impacts the lives of those who experienced it and how those memories are interpreted in different ways depending on the character whose mind readers are viewing it through. Through this article, readers gain insight into how Woolf makes use of time-space-emotion and how it allows her to authentically represent consciousness.
Recommended Citation
Frost, Madison, "“Her Feeling Had Come Too Late”: Emotion and Time in Virginia Woolf’s Modernism" (2021). All ETDs from UAB. 789.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/789
