Tracing the Material considers how James Joyce’s Ulysses, Virginia Woolf’s The Years, and Samuel Beckett’s Murphy represent material spaces and objects as a way of engaging with the fraught histories of England and Ireland. I argue that these three writers use spaces and objects to think through and critique nineteenth and early twentieth-century conflicts and transitions, particularly in the areas of empire, nationalism, gender, and family. Writing in the 1920s and 1930s, in the decline of British ascendency, the rise of the Irish Free State, and between the World Wars, these writers seek to interpret their history through the material world as a way of articulating their political, cultural, and social dissatisfactions, and to imagine the future. Drawing in part from Walter Benjamin’s materialist historiography and Jacques Derrida’s texts on spectrality and mourning, I investigate how the material world becomes the means through which nations and individuals express their guilt and desires, mourn losses, cut their losses, articulate the present, and anticipate the future. A study of the material world in these novels thus yields insights into how literary texts respond to history, both overtly and implicitly, foregrounding the importance of physical spaces and things in the larger narratives of national and personal history. My dissertation offers a new understanding of the way twentieth-century literature navigates its history through materiality, destabilizes subject-object distinctions, and exposes the often-unexpected power of the non-human world.

This thesis examines different facets of feminine artistry in Virginia Woolf's novels with the purpose of defining her conception of women artists and the role sacrifice plays in it. The project follows characters in "Mrs. Dalloway," "To the Lighthouse," and "Between the Acts" as they attempt to create art despite society's restrictions; it studies the suffering these women experience under regimented institutions and arbitrary gender roles. From Woolf’s earlier texts to her last, she embraces the uncertainty of identity, even as she portrays the artist’s sacrifice in the early-to-mid twentieth century, specifically as the creative female identity fights to adapt to male-dominated spaces. Through a close-reading approach coupled with biographical and historical research, this thesis concludes that although the narratives of Woolf's novels demand the woman artist sacrifice for the sake of pursuing creation, Woolf praises the attempt and considers it a crueler fate to live with unfulfilled potential.

Tom Wolfe was a founding father of New Journalism, revolutionizing journalistic reporting by introducing literary tools of storytelling. The literary influence on New Journalism is well-covered by journalism scholars, but Wolfe was also a fiction writer, and as such he actively tried to rally his generation of fiction writers behind him for a New Social Novel, more grounded in reality and reporting. His post-postmodern novels also amalgamate journalism and literature, but how and to what extent journalism influenced his fiction writing is a story yet untold.  Wolfe provided a normative blueprint for how to achieve verisimilitude in fiction, in his literary manifesto: “Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast”. At about the same time, he started writing the novel A Man in Full. Using A Man in Full as an application of his ideas of the ideal novel, this thesis investigates how Wolfe constructed the reality effect in his fiction and foregrounds the origins of Tom Wolfe’s literary voice, focusing on onomatopoetic language, statuspheric minutiae, expressive punctuation, and Wolfe’s characteristic wake-the-dead prose style. I argue that Wolfe did reinvent verisimilitude in literary realism, but not in the way that he intended, through reporting and status details, but rather through language.

During the Modernist period, generally defined between the years 1890 and 1945, artists were attempting to break away from previous forms and styles. For example, writers like Henry James and Virginia Woolf sought to change the novel by exploring the consciousness of characters, while playing with the ideas of time and space to create the present moment. The thesis explores the modernist techniques used by James and Woolf, but also connects the work of the writers with the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Using Joseph Frank's theory of spatial form, my work explores the similarities between Wright's designs of private residences with the design of space in the novel. All three artists, I argue, are working with spatial form, blending interior with exterior, to provide the reader and the dweller with the opportunity to experience an organic unity, which ultimately results in a freezing of the moment. In addition to Frank's theory, I also incorporate Stanley Fish and Reader Response theory and William James's Principles of Psychology. The reader and the dweller must actively engage with the structure, whether a text or the home, to develop and realize the possibilities of spatial form. Also, William James's ideas about the mind and consciousness influenced Henry James and Virginia Woolf, especially in their focus on character, rather than description. I have chosen James's The Turn of the Screw and The Wings of the Dove along with Woolf's To the Lighthouse and The Waves to study with Wright's Prairie and Usonian residences. Each chapter looks at one novel and Wright's corresponding work during approximately the same time period. By connecting literature and architecture, the thesis provides new ways of thinking about the two disciplines, especially concerning interiority and consciousness. James, Woolf, and Wright are all experimenting with time and space to create a unified experience, and the striking parallels between their work deserves more attention.

I denna uppsats används fragmentsestetik som metod för att analysera berättartekniken i Jacob’s Room av Virginia Woolf. Receptionskritik av romanen och teoribildningen kring fragmentsestetik inleder. Därefter undersöks hur teorin påverkar läsningen. Vidare förklaras hur olika teman kan hålla samman den ofta uppbrutna intrigen. Därtill tydliggörs hur fragmentsestetiken påverkar gestaltningen av huvudpersonen Jacob. Huvudpersonen sätts också in i ett modernistiskt sammanhang och hans gestalt analyseras i relation till staden. Modernismens begrepp flanör undersöks och huruvida Jacob kategoriseras som sådan. Avslutningsvis diskuteras den moderna stadens gestaltning och funktion. Fragmentsestetiken sätter texten i rörelse då London och dess invånare omväxlingsvis speglas som objekt och subjekt. Således bildas enhetlighet och brottstycken av den intrig som utgör romanen. / <p>Slutgiltigt godkännandedatum: 2023-08-24</p>

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在晚近的現代城市論述裡，城市常被認為是一抽象、陽剛且具有排外性質的空間；二十世紀初開始成形的概念城市(concept city)即是其例。概念城市將空間轉為清晰可讀，以便於居民生活及加速其政經發展；但相對地來說，這樣的空間也極其霸道。概念城市以其單義、同質的空間性質削弱了、甚至替代了城市裡既存的多元差異；這包含了城市原有的建築、文化及居民生活。 以二十世紀初的英國倫敦為例，當維吉尼亞˙吳爾芙著手撰寫《戴洛維夫人》時，倫敦地鐵(London Underground)已縱行於地底下數十年；地鐵改變了倫敦白天的城市地貌，也影響著外來客的行動、改變了倫敦居民的生活習慣與文化。倫敦地標大鵬鐘(Big Ben)則是另一例的城市指標。鑄造於十九世紀中葉的大鵬鐘，根據格林威治(Greenwich)時間準點報時，迄今已有百餘年；它的報時已成為倫敦人重要的時間指示，它的存在也日復一日地提醒著有關大英帝國過去輝煌的殖民偉業及其驕傲。在《戴洛維夫人》裡，吳爾芙將大鵬鐘的鐘聲與小說人物生命橫向交織；大鵬鐘常在小說人物生命中重要的時刻出現，又或者說，它的每一次報時同時也在小說人物的生命中印下不一樣的記憶。在二十世紀初的倫敦，地鐵已四通八達，而吳爾芙《戴洛維夫人》小說中的人物仍選擇以步行方式體驗城市；這體驗既帶有享受雙腳自由行動的意味，其無可預測的移動性也是對城市既定空間與人為客觀時間規劃的無聲抵抗。十九世紀法國詩人波特萊爾(Charles Baudelaire)在其詩作中，勾勒出了女性行人與男性漫遊者擦身而過下的微妙關係；其中，我們也約略可見現代巴黎城市的初貌。在一次大戰後出版的《戴洛維夫人》裡，書中的主要漫遊者換成了女性；主角克萊麗莎(Clarissa Dalloway)漫步於倫敦市街頭時，她的思緒時而被大鵬鐘的鐘聲所擾，但實際上她又那麼地喜愛它，只因它是大英帝國的驕傲，而身為英國居民的她多年來也深受其惠。相較之下，小說中其他的人物對大鵬鐘的鐘聲也有不同的迴響，但大多數既服從其律、也有抵抗。 因此，本論文第一章將回顧大鵬鐘及其所代表的帝國操控及時間單意化意涵，佐以傅柯(Michel Foucault)空間與權力的論述來強調城市空間權威化與概念化的過程作為中調，最後以近代法國批評家德瑟多(Michel de Certeau)提出的城市使用者的戰術性(tactics)抵抗作為整篇論文概念的啟蒙，來分析吳爾芙《戴洛維夫人》小說人物選擇步行城市的意義。論文第二章以城市漫遊者為主調，再探德瑟多提出的城市步行者的日常生活實踐(practice of everyday life)；德瑟多認為處於弱勢的普羅大眾有能力主動創造屬於自己的空間，而此一能動性(mobility)剛好用以規避、抵抗或者顛覆原有空間中所含附的權力論述。在此架構中，處於弱勢的總是大眾整體，所以德瑟多的城市步行者理論男女兼備。但當回溯十九世紀初成形的現代都市漫遊者(flâneur)時，在性別議題上卻爭議不斷，因為當時只有少數女性可以自由在街上行動而不會被視作招攬性生意者(streetwalkers)。因此在探討波特萊爾及班雅明對其詩作及的理解之外，女性主義者對男性漫遊者的觀看(gaze)及其性別(gender)批判也為此章節必要之回顧。而一次戰後的女權運動，也間接影響著吳爾芙小說中的女性角色及其自主意識的塑造。第二章最後以吳爾芙所寫的二篇文章作為結尾；吳爾芙的二文中皆揭露了女性漫遊者與男性漫遊者的不同，在她的文字中，我們已可以嗅到《戴洛維夫人》克萊麗莎行走倫敦的樂趣及限制所在。第三章及第四章則分別為《戴洛維夫人》小說的文本分析；第三章著重於大鵬鐘對人物角色塑造與其故事中日常生活行動的影響，且依據小說中鐘聲敲響的時間先後來鋪序。第四章則與城市空間相關，先提出小說人物為何選擇行走而不搭地鐵為開頭，再分析城市空間如何直接或間接塑造小說人物特質或心理。第五章則為本論文的終章；總結中先提出德瑟多對城市生活的切入觀點，其實是欲挖掘出城市使用者如何在此一愈趨綿密的城市架構下生存，及如何用他們的能動性走出與這城市性格相異的空間故事。吳爾芙的《戴洛維夫人》也許已為現代城市的步行樂趣及抵抗游擊做出最好的註解。 / This thesis starts with an exploration of the ambivalent role of Big Ben in relation to Clarissa Dalloway and some other characters in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The assumption and focus of the thesis is that they, when walking through London, both succumb to and resist in some ways the imperial symbol and all the others in complicity with it. The urban space that is an abstract, masculine, and exclusionary one which represents a manipulative gaze of city planners is one such example. With that discussion of Big Ben and the urban space that impact a lot upon London residents as a valuable basis, the thesis then proceeds to use Michel de Certeau’s theory on the mobility of city users and their interactions with the urban space as an enlightenment idea. With that, this thesis would be able to present a more positive and encouraging portrayal of the early twentieth century Londoner, particularly female, who has started lately to experience pleasure in urban life that provides both convenience in public transportation as the London Underground and places to shop and stay in as department stores. The main proposition is that women would be the most complicated site of urban pleasure and resistance that deserves detailed analysis in the cityscape of London.

"L'essai de soi ", en tant que méthode littéraire, crée dans l'œuvre de Woolf, Les Vagues, une nouvelle façon de faire littérature, ainsi qu'une nouvelle pensée philosophique. À fin de comprendre comment l'essai exerce une influence sur le travail de Woolf, J'ai analysé Les Essais de Michel de Montaigne, comme une méthode, comme l'exegium, dans ses multiples connotations ainsi que comme processus qui donne naissance à l'essai en tant que genre littéraire, dans son acception moderne. À travers " l'essai de soi " Montaigne et Woolf élaborent leurs propres autoportraits avec des mots. Pour une meilleure compréhension de ce processus j'ai établi des échos avec des philosophes contemporains et avec l'analyse des spécialistes. Pour une meilleure compréhension de " l'essai de soi " par rapport au travail de Woolf, je propose la définition des principes qui définissent la méthode de Montaigne. Ces principes ont été développés comme des axes de " l'essai de soi " sa définition et son interaction à chaque moment de son écriture. Dans le sens d'un " jeu d'abymes ", j'ai visé le centre d'un entrecroisement d'hommages. Celui que Montaigne rend à Etienne de la Boétie, et la relation littéraire que Woolf établit avec Montaigne. Les deux auteurs développent son écriture comme une sorte d'autobiographie, mais ils vont au-delà de ce genre, par le registre du passage du temps et les transformations qui s'opèrent au moment de l'écriture. Les personnages de Woolf sont construits à partir de la variété de multiplicités que chacun en soi, celle que les autres et le regard des autres lui apportent. Les Vagues est une radiographie de l'esprit humain qui est au même temps approche philosophique, l'écriture suit ce que Montaigne décrit comme une forme elliptique de création. Les deux auteurs se basent sur l'expérience humaine, celle qui est commune à tous, là au chacun se rencontre avec l'autre. À travers ce processus, Woolf traduit la philosophie de Montaigne en style narratif.

This thesis explores women’s writing and its place in the formation of female film culture in the British silent cinema era. The project focuses upon women’s literary engagement with silent cinema as generative of a female film culture, looking at materials such as fan letters, fan magazines, popular novels, short story papers, novelizations, critical journals and newspaper criticism. Exploring this diverse range of women’s cinema writing, the thesis seeks to make an original contribution to feminist film historiography. Focusing upon the mediations between different kinds of women’s cinema writing, the thesis poses key questions about how the feminist film historian weights original sources in the reclamation of silent female film culture, relative to the varying degrees of cultural authority with which different women commentated upon, reflected upon, and creatively responded to film culture. The thesis moves away from conceptualization of cinema audiences and reception practices based upon textual readings. Instead, the thesis focuses upon evidence of women’s original accounts of their cinemagoing practices (fan letters) and their critical (newspaper and journal criticism) and creative (fiction writers) responses to cinema’s place in women’s everyday lives. Balancing original archival research with multiple overarching methodological frameworks—drawing upon fan theory, feminist reception theory, audience studies, social history and cultural studies—the thesis is attentive to the diversity of women’s experiences of cinema culture, and the literary conduits through which they channeled these experiences. Shifting the recent focus in feminist silent film historiography away from the reclamation of lost filmmaking female pioneers and towards lost female audiences, the thesis thus constructs a nationally specific account of British women’s silent era cinema culture.

This thesis investigates a neglected sub-genre of women’s writing, which I have termed the literature of the boarding house. Focusing on unmarried women, this is a study of the alternative rooms ‘of one’s own’ that existed in the nineteen thirties: from the boarding house and hotel, to the bed-sitting room or single room as a paying guest in another family’s house. The 1930s is defined by the conflict between women’s emerging social and economic independence and a dominant ideology that placed increased importance on domesticity, the idea of ‘home’ and women’s place within the familial structure. My research highlights the incompatibility between the idealised images of domestic life that dominated the period and the reality for the single woman living in temporary accommodation. The boarding house existed outside conventional notions of female domestic space with its connotations of stability and family life. Women within the boarding house were not only living outside traditional domestic structures; they were placing themselves outside socially and culturally defined domestic roles. The boarding house was both a new space of modernity, symbolising women’s independence, and a continued imitation of the bourgeois home modelled on rituals of middle-class behaviour. Through an examination of novels by Elizabeth Bowen, Lettice Cooper, Stella Gibbons, Storm Jameson, Rosamond Lehmann, Dorothy Richardson, Jean Rhys, Virginia Woolf, and E. H. Young, this study privileges the literary as a way in which to understand the space of the boarding house. Not only does the boarding house blur the boundaries between public and private space, it also challenges the traditional conceptions of the family home as the sole location of private domestic space. I argue that by placing their characters in the in-between space of the boarding house, the authors can reflect on the liminal spaces that existed for women both socially and sexually. In the literature of the boarding house, the novel becomes a site for representing women’s experiences that were usually on the periphery of traditional narratives, as well as a literary medium for articulating the wider social and economic issues affecting the lives of unmarried women.