Passing Through The Tunnel Of Time

This thesis is a discussion on the narrative time in Woolf s fiction of stream of consciousness. Through a careful analysis of the time stracture in The Mark on the Wall (1919), Mrs Dalloway(l925) and To the Lighthouse(l927), it expounds the exquisite narrative time of Woolf s fiction and reveals its general feature and Woolf s innovation in the arrangement of time in the novel. Being one of the principle elements of novels, time is valued as important as plot and character. In traditional novels, the narrative time mainly develops in linear sequence. However, Woolf s fiction unfolds its complexity and characterizes itself by the non-linear development of the narrative time. Breaking through the confinements of the chronological sequence of physical time, Woolf adopts psychological time in the narration which fully reflects the infinite expansibility and massive cohesive force of narrative time. Woolf s handling of time is a way to present the theme and content of the novel, which makes the novel highly effective and connotative.This thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter one deals with the philosophical and psychological basis, and briefly accounts the development of the stream of consciousness novel whose appearance demands the new expressive way of narrative time.Chapter two elaborates the narrative time of Woolf s three representative works.Chapter three dwells on Woolf s contribution to narrative time in modern fiction.The thesis concludes that the principle reason why Woolf s fiction remains distinctive in the modern literature, is that she boldly breaks freely from traditional linear stracture based on the chronological sequence of clock time, endowing new connotation and forms to narrative time, thereby successfully sets up a brand-new order of narrative time.