The Past In The Present: A Study Of Trauma Themes In Virginia Woolf's Between The Acts

Between the Acts is Virginia Woolf's last work, completed just one month before her death in 1941 .She was stil l working on the final revisions when the compulsion for the ultimate escape seized her. The novel has received mixed critical opinions since its publication. Some critics think it does not reach the same height as her former novels, The Waves or To the Lighthouse, while some others hold firmly that it is also a masterpiece of Mr. Woolf, even a swansong with the plot well integrated, the fancy under deft control and even a new calmness, a new clarity which makes her last piece stand out among her former ones. Time has done justice to the last piece. It arrests attention of more and more readers, both common and expert ones. Some read it as a carnivalesque comedy, while some others touch upon its presentation of traumatic acts. It should be noted that trauma narrative permeates most of her former works, with no exception to her last one. What's more, Between the Acts represents the culmination of Virginia Woolf's life long exploration of trauma and recovery through catharsis. This thesis will examine traumas narrated through camouflage of a carnival based on synthesized definition of trauma, from personal trauma to collective trauma.The introduction briefly reviews recent studies on trauma in Virginia Woolf's works, especially in Between the Acts, puts forward the possibility of extending existing scholarship on both Woolf and her trauma themes in provocative and challenging ways, and enumerates the basic opinions and argumentative structure of the whole thesis.The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter one discusses recent researches on trauma theory. Synthesized trauma theory will be summarized to help us achieve a better understanding of trauma literature and trauma themes in literature.Chapter two explores characters'personal trauma in the novel. Individual character's personal trauma differs: Isa is haunted by rape fantasy while William Dodge is a homosexual, who is silenced by reticent violence.Chapter three presents collective trauma experienced by some certain groups: Female characters, representative of all female in British society suffer from the patriarchal culture while the whole nation is traumatized by successive great wars.The conclusion makes a brief summary of the arguments ,and concisely accounts for Virginia Woolf's another way of recovery from trauma-passive, reticent reconciliation with brutal reality. Either Woolf herself or her characters choose to reconcile with their status quo finally. The novel is loaded with thickness of pessimistic tone. But Virginia Woolf, a soul driven into despair by the world she lives in never gives up her efforts to awaken the world even in her swansong.