26,502 research outputs found
Romantic Dialogues: Writing the Self in De Quincey and Woolf
No full textVirginia Woolf has been recognised as a pioneering modernist writer creating a new literary voice. It is not unusual to discover in Woolf’s writings the aesthetic and literary traces of those past traditions and influences which have been woven into her modern narratives. One significant, but often overlooked, influence comes from the Romantic period and the essayist, Thomas De Quincey. De Quincey’s stylish essays inspire Woolf’s art. Both writers’ fascination with representing the self (and their devotion to creating a literary thinking about, and narrative of, the subject) indicates a shared affinity between these two writers in spite of important cultural, historical, and social differences between them. My treatment of the self in De Quincey and Woolf is aware of the aesthetic and literary affinities between them and those cultural and historical differences that divide them. Tracing important connections between these two important writers sheds light on the larger concerns and patterns of both the literary scenes of Romanticism and Modernism.
Six chapters in three sections focus on three main aspects of the self central to De Quincey and Woolf—the art of literature, the representation of time and the question of autobiographical writing. Chapter One and Two investigate De Quincey’s literature of power and Woolf’s art of fiction to examine the relationship between literary representation and the self. Chapter Three and Four discuss issues of time and self in De Quincey and Woolf. The final two chapters contend that De Quincey’s and Woolf’s reflections on literary representation, and time as a philosophical problem are embodied in their writings of the self across their respective literary careers. A project of this kind is alert to and enriches a recent burgeoning critical interest from Romanticists and Modernists alike in the exchanges, interchanges, bequests, and legacies of Romanticism to Modernism
The dialectic of self and other in Montaigne, Proust and Woolf
No full textThis thesis investigates the construction of identity in relation to an other. It considers three
writers who, working at moments when the nature of selfhood was an urgent issue, conduct
profound and original enquiries into the question of self- construction, and seeks both to
reassess their contributions to this debate, and, in bringing their preoccupations and methods
to bear upon each other, to open up new ways of approaching and reading their work.
Considering a range of socio-cultural and religious forms of otherness -- the cannibal, the
witch, the Jew, the aristocrat, the woman, the divine -- it embraces material from a number of
important modem critical fields, and suggests how these topics might be combined to offer a
coherent statement about the enduring issue of s elf- fashioning.
The thesis seeks to map out a trajectory of decreasing investment in external communities,
and an increasing perception of the self as a source and agent in the construction of identity.
Looking in turn at the work of Montaigne, Proust and Woolf, it argues that where the Essais
construct complex orders which appropriate the other to reinforce the identity of the self,
Proust and Woolf increasingly, although gradually, and by no means always successfully,
attempt to negotiate a less precisely- engaged relationship between other and self, and to
assign the other a less constitutive role in the realization and expression of identity. The
thesis also considers more briefly contexts in which this trajectory is reversed. To the extent
that they examine modernist subjectivity, Proust and Woolf articulate an anxiety about the
separation of self and world which leads to an attempted recuperation of the integrated orders
depicted by Montaigne
Author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012 /
No full textTitle from acquisitions documentation.; Part of the collection: Portraits of author Peter FitzSimons speaking at the National Library of Australia, Canberra, 13 November 2012.; Acquired in digital format; access copy available online.; Mode of access: Online.; Photographed by a staff member of the National Library of Australia
Gesamtkunstwerk as an aesthetic pre-occupation in the novels of Virginia Woolf.
No full textPhDThis thesis aims to show that Wagner's theories of Gesamtkunstwerk were a
pre-occupation in Woolf's work throughout her career. The introduction
explores Gesamtkunstwerk theory, tracing its development in theories
concerning the combination of art forms, I go on to show how Woolf uses the
Voyage Out to explore what the modern novel can learn from musical arts, while
Jacob's Room adds painting to music as a significant field of interest for
Woolf Mrs Dalloway adds to the complexity of combination, for I will
demonstrate that in this novel a Nietzschean interpretation of Wagner's ideas
found in The Birth of Tragedy is detectable, allowing Woolf to compare the
motivation of more extreme avant-garde groups. The chapter on To the
Lighthouse will consider Woolf's evaluation of her parents' cultural
background and the influence of Roger Fry on her developing aesthetic theory
of combination. I shall argue that understanding of these areas allows Woolf to
begin to experiment with her own form of Gesamtkunstwerk. It is in The
Waves that the connection with Wagner is most obvious. Here, I believe
Woolf shifts the focus of attention from Wagnerian theories of
Gesamtkunstwerk to the Modernists' development of such ideas,
demonstrating her knowledge of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Looking closely
at the 1915 Raid Scene in The Years, I intend to show that Woolf's thinking on
the concept of combination is equally radical in this novel which is often
considered to be more conventional. I will go on to suggest that Between the
Acts, widely acknowledged to indicate a crisis in Woolf's confidence in
Modernism, marks a turning point in her thinking about the possibilities of
combining the arts to achieve Gesamtkunstwerk. I will argue that in this piece
Woolf provides us with all the elements used to create unity in the previous
works and yet they are never wholly united. Woolf, however, is not suggesting
that Gesamtkunstwerk is an impossibility, she is rather indicating that the
audience lacks the ability to provide the stage for such a piece to exist
Moral Good, the Beatific Vision, and God’s Kingdom Writings by Germain Grisez and Peter Ryan, S.J.. Edited by Peter J. Weigel
No full textFor close to half a century, the work of Germain Grisez has been highly influential, and his writings continue to receive considerable attention from philosophers and theologians of diverse viewpoints. His co-author for this work is the professor and noted moral theologian Fr. Peter Ryan, S.J., currently the executive director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These two eminent scholars explore fundamental questions about Christian eschatology, moral theory, the purpose of human life, and the promise of human fulfilment. The authors examine Christian teaching on the final destiny of persons, investigating the meaning of God's kingdom, the hope of the beatific vision, and the centrality of moral goodness and divine grace in one's final end. This work is an ideal source for students, scholars, ministers and lay persons interested in basic questions of Christian theology, the philosophy of religion, ethical theory, and Catholic doctrin
Murder on the mountain: author talk with Peter J. Wosh
No full textAuthor talk by Peter J. Wosh on May 5th, 2022, on his book, "Murder on the Mountain: crime, passion, and punishment in gilded age New Jersey.
Virginia Woolf the marriage of heaven and hell
No full text"In this book, psychiatrist Peter Dally explores the darker side of Virginia Woolf. Bringing together his knowledge as a doctor with his life-long fascination with Virginia Woolf's life and work, he sheds light on the depression that tormented her adult years."--BOOK JACKET
Leonard and Virginia Woolf a literary partnership
No full textThis new study of the relationship of Leonard and Virginia Woolf is based on two controversial assumptions: that 'Bloomsbury' never existed and that Virginia Woolf does not deserve her reputation as one of the greatest figures of English literary history. Aiming to restore perceptions of Leonard and Virginia Woolf to a more realistic level, without undermining their considerable achievements, Peter Alexander focuses on the surprising literary influence which Leonard and Virginia had on each other and the difficult yet fruitful partnership which they forged. Clearly, Leonard Woolf had a profound effect on Virginia's writing, not merely in caring for her and providing the circumstances in which she could write, but in offering her a model of sensibility so different from her own that she was continually reacting against it, or (more damagingly) trying to emulate it. For her part, Virginia stimulated Leonard into writing novels, provided him with compelling subject matter through her prejudiced reactions to himself, and ultimately influenced not only the course of his writing, but even the style of his late autobiography. Making extensive use of both unpublished and recently published material, including Leonard Woolf's letters and Virginia Woolf's early journals, this illustrated book combines the intellectual energy of a critical study with the excitement and narrative drive of a groundbreaking biography
Lunchtime Talk with Author and Attorney Peter Godwin
No full textAuthor and attorney Peter Godwin gave a lunchtime talk about the topics discussed in his book, The Fear, which focuses on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe under the rule of Robert Mugabe
Translating Feminist Discourses in Virginia Woolf’s “Anon”
No full textThe essay takes into consideration a less known and unfinished piece of writing by Woolf, Anon where the author outlines from a feminist perspective a different literary canon, and the translation of this text into Italian
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