Mystical Motifs in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway Essay -- Virginia Woolf Mrs.

Mystical Motifs in Woolfs Mrs. DallowayThe scholarship surrounding Woolfs mysticism by and puffy focuses on a psychoanalytical approach. While this paper will somewhat attempt to move away from a psychoanalytical methodology, it is valuable to examine the actual scholarship and the departures from this approach. Within this theoretical structure, the critical discussion further breaks down into two separate, though not incompatible, groups those who see Woolfs use of mysticism as a feminist statement and those who see Woolf as a mystic. I contend that both perspectives are valid and are inherent in Woolfs application of mystical motifs, particularly in Mrs. Dalloway.Val Gough in his article With Some Irony in Her Interrogation Woolfs Ironic Mysticism craps an argument for Woolfs ironic use of mysticism in her pass waters as a feminist statement. Through various syntactical subtleties, Gough points out areas in Woolfs work where the mystic quest for verity is portrayed in a s ubtly skeptical manner (Gough 86). Gough extends her use of irony to examine how it serves to de-naturalize the relationship between text and reader, to make it overtly complex and problematic (88). He contends that irony, in operating between the reader and the text, serves to break down, to some extent, the stability of the sign and of supposed absolute truth (88). Ultimately, he concludes that Woolfs ironic mysticismnecessarily involves a feminist challenging of rigid structures of phallic (and imperialist) power, thus making it a mysticism of subversive, politically critical, feminist irony (89).Goughs particular approach is interesting because it contends that an ironic mysticism is inherently politicized and specifica... ...ulie. Varieties of Mystical Experience in the Writings of Virginia Woolf. Twentieth century Literature Vol 41 Iss 4 (1995) 328-349. Minow-Pinsky, Makiko. How then does light return to the world after the eclipse of the sun? Miraculously, fraily A Psy choanalytic Interpretation of Woolfs Mysticism. Virginia Woolf and the Arts. footfall University Press New York 1997.Moore, Madeline. The Short Season Between Two Silences The Mystical and the Political in the Novels of Virginia Woolf. Allen & Unwin Winchester, Mass 1984.Rachman, Shalom. Clarissas Attic Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway Reconsidered. Twentieth blow Literature Vol 18 Issue 1 (1972) 3-18Smith, Susan Bennett. Reinventing Grief Work Virginia Woolfs Feminist Representations of Mourning in Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse. Twentieth Century Literature Vol 41 Iss 4 (1995) 310-327