Identity Construction Of Post-Victorian "Empire Daughters"

Virginia Woolf,as an influential writer during the post-Victorian era,has attracted scholars' attention through the ages.Researches about her and her works have shifted their focuses from the analysis of modernist techniques to the politico-cultural criticism where the postcolonial interpretation of Woolf's identity as an imperial woman has shed new light on the post-Victorian age as well as conventional feminist studies of her eminent works.However,such research contradicts Woolf's criticism of the link between patriarchal oppression and imperial war,for it views Woolf's conflicting imperial complex and vague female identity within the interpretative framework of such theoretical terms as selfhood,other and hybridity.Based on the investigation of female development pattern as well as empire culture transition in the post-Victorian era,the present study adopts such theories as plot construction,characterization and covert progression in narratology,combined with Woolf's political thoughts,to explore how Woolf makes full use of the interplay between patriarchal ideology and empire culture in the identity construction of "empire daughters" by criticizing and transforming the invisible empire and constructing the invisible empire through imitation,softening of and discriminative identification with patriarchy.According to the subjects of her three key ideas,namely killing the angle in the house,establishing the outsiders' society and moving towards androgyny,the present study chooses her three novels for investigation,that is,The Voyage Out,Mrs.Dalloway and To the Lighthouse,to reveal Woolf's gender identity in the empire.Besides the introduction and conclusion,the body consists of four chapters.Chapter one illustrates Woolf's double consciousness in her three key ideas and narrative duality in the corresponding texts.Chapter two focuses on The Voyage Out.From the perspective of narrative duality caused by thought plot and action plot,the chapter analyzes female revolutionary stand of fighting against the conspiracy between patriarchal oppression and visible empire by killing the angel in the house,with violence against violence.Chapter three revolves around Mrs.Dalloway.By resorting to narrative duality resulted from functional character and psychological character,the chapter analyzes the transition from female revolutionary ideal of getting rid of patriarchal control and overturning visible empire to her practical need of softening patriarchy and transforming the visible empire,which shows the conservative standpoint from outside to inside.Chapter four discusses To the Lighthouse and analyzes how covert progression behind overt plot gives a new demonstration of the invisible empire in androgyny,through matricide and identification with father,thus fulfilling identity construction of"empire daughters" between revolution and conservation.From the analysis above,we find the correspondence between Woolf's key ideas and textual narratives in their dialogue with two empire cultures is not only reflected in the subject of female self-definition,but hidden in the subtle distance between female empowerment strategy and identity construction,which is of great significance to fully reveal Woolf's gender identity in the empire and the process of her construction.