Narrative techniques into comparison: Virginia Woolf and James Joyce

1. What are the narrative techniques exploited by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce?

Criteria:

-          Kind of narrator

-          Shift of the point of view

-          Technique of showing and of telling

-          Level of realism

2. Why are they considered modernist writers?
3. Which innovations did they bring?

1 . The narrative technique used both by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce is the interior monologue, in which the narrator almost disappears and the point of view overlaps with the internal thoughts of the character. Grammar rules are respected and punctuation is used to reproduce the sequence of thoughts, memories, feelings, considerations of the characters. The interior monologue is the immediate verbal expression of a psychic phenomenon, therefore it is free from introductory expressions or “verba dicendi”. In the interior monologue there are two levels of narration: one external to the character’s mind following chronological time, the other internal, following the subjective time of conscience.

Both Virginia Woolf and James Joyce use the interior monologue, though their narrations differ for a different level of realism. On one side, V. Woolf’s narration is rich of details functional to make the reader feel, hear, see what the character experiences (language of senses). On the other side, Joyce’s realism can be defined symbolic, since each detail, each object quoted by the narrator hides a deep metaphorical meaning.

James Joyce brings the interior monologue to its extreme form  in the so called stream of consciousness, that is the free direct expression of the character’s thoughts. The stream of consciousness is deprived of punctuation and of syntax, there are no logical nexus, nor consequential connections, therefore the character’s stream of thoughts can flows freely, without mediation and narrative filters. Only Joyce exploits the stream of consciousness in his masterpiece Ulysses, in which the reader is compelled to makes conjectures and hypothesis, to find the possible links between the characters’ thoughts.

2 . They are considered modernist writers since they experimented innovative techniques in order to try to translate into words the complexity of external reality and of human nature as well. They are modernist writers since they experienced the change, the shift from the Victorian age to the Modern age: the lived the social and cultural transformations brought by the 19^th century trying to give a shape and to find an order in that new chaotic world. They focused on the inner world of the subject, and on his relationship with the external world, in order to carry on their quest.

3 . They brought radical innovations in the narrative techniques and in the use of language, as we have already see in the interior monologue and in the stream of consciousness. But their contribution did not concern only the literary field, since they offered their readers a new perspective on the subject and on his interaction with other people and with the external world. They brought to the surface the human inner world, denying and contradicting social conventions and traditional schemes used until that time. Indeed, finally they sharply criticized the cultural and intellectual paralysis of modern society, peopled by  “the Dubliners”, those who  adhere uncritically to the common thought, who live without awareness.