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LZentilin - Modernist Fiction. V. Woolf and J. Joyce. The Common Reader, Textual Analysis, Improved Version.
by - (2012-01-13)
Up to 5B - Modernist Fiction. V. Woolf and J. Joyce
IMPROVED VERSION
The extract is taken from a collection of critical essays published by Virginia Woolf with the title of The Common Reader. It’s an argumentative text arranged in two main paragraph where Mrs. Woolf expounds her position on traditional and modern novel and her vision of life.
Demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the traditionism in literature, for it’s inability of retuning the reality of life, is the main function of the essay. In the first part the argumentation points out the restriction or the catalogue of types – such as plot, comedy, tragedy etc, that are fixed by traditional method of novel. One of those limits is the search of likelihood in describing external facts. Therefore all these criterion are the “death” of “spirit” or spontaneity, so the modern writer doesn’t have to describe reality following outdated rules.
After this first part the argumentation deepens the reasons why traditionism is not able to return the correct idea of life. Mrs. Woolf starts from the analysis of “an ordinary mind on an ordinary day”: the reception of the mind develops into myriad impressions and this complexity characterized also the life. Thus implies the convention given by tradition are not efficient means for representing it. The extract reaches to it’s end with the thesis of the argumentation: “the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration”. The position of the essayist is the modern writer needs to loosen from describing external events, because reality lies not in the outer actions (as tradition thoughts), but in the inner working of the human mind, in the human consciousness.
From this summarization it’s quite evident that the reasoning is leaded trough a well structured organization and the argumentations are well backed. Figurative language like, the metaphors of tight-fitting stuff and of the tyrant, are used to convey the idea of constraint and limit, while the addition of lexical elements belonging to scientific language (i.e. “innumerable atoms”) are useful to support the demonstration and to give proof of a personal elaboration of literary language reached by Mrs. Woolf.
The extract is taken from a collection of critical essays published by Virginia Woolf with the title of The Common Reader. It’s an argumentative text arranged in two main paragraph where Mrs. Woolf expounds her position on traditional and modern novel and her vision of life.
Demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the traditionism in literature, for it’s inability of retuning the reality of life, is the main function of the essay. In the first part the argumentation points out the restriction or the catalogue of types – such as plot, comedy, tragedy etc, that are fixed by traditional method of novel. One of those limits is the search of likelihood in describing external facts. Therefore all these criterion are the “death” of “spirit” or spontaneity, so the modern writer doesn’t have to describe reality following outdated rules.
After this first part the argumentation deepens the reasons why traditionism is not able to return the correct idea of life. Mrs. Woolf starts from the analysis of “an ordinary mind on an ordinary day”: the reception of the mind develops into myriad impressions and this complexity characterized also the life. Thus implies the convention given by tradition are not efficient means for representing it. The extract reaches to it’s end with the thesis of the argumentation: “the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration”. The position of the essayist is the modern writer needs to loosen from describing external events, because reality lies not in the outer actions (as tradition thoughts), but in the inner working of the human mind, in the human consciousness.
From this summarization it’s quite evident that the reasoning is leaded trough a well structured organization and the argumentations are well backed. Figurative language like, the metaphors of tight-fitting stuff and of the tyrant, are used to convey the idea of constraint and limit, while the addition of lexical elements belonging to scientific language (i.e. “innumerable atoms”) are useful to support the demonstration and to give proof of a personal elaboration of literary language reached by Mrs. Woolf.