A Narratological And Stylistic Study Of Virginia Woolf's Point Of View

The present paper adopts an integrated approach to study of Virginia Woolf's point of view. Although narratology and stylistics are different in subjects, orientations and purposes, they come to the intersection at the point of view. In the field of narratology, the two constituents of point of view, focalization and voice, are defined and differentiated. In the field of stylistics, specific linguistic models are employed to identify focalization and narrative voice. In doing so, the confusion of narratological classification of point of view is dispelled; and the linguistic features within stylistics provide evidence for the identification of focalization and narrative voice, thus constructing the investigation on a more adequate and convincing basis.Virginia Woolf is undoubtedly one of the most highly regarded and appreciated of modern authors. However, the form and her artistic use of language of her novels have not been adequately treated, particularly the presence of voice. Considering the inadequacy, I try to conduct a comparatively comprehensive formal study of narrative point of view. In this paper, Woolf's noted technical aspects are examined. On the one hand, she highlights internal focalization by displaying characters' stream-of-consciousness flows while adjusting it to a shifting model. On the other hand, unlike other modernist novelists she skillfully preserves her narrative voice through rhetorical use of language.Unlike most of the formal studies that regard the literary works as self-contained whole, the present paper goes beyond a textual analysis. Woolf is commonly regarded as the feminist predecessor and has influenced and inspired many feminist followers. She realizes that her strategies of narrative structures and manipulated use of language are the effective instruments to meet the demands of her ideas, especially her feminist ideas. In this paper, I choose point of view as a breakthrough at which different approaches converge. The present paper provides students of English with a heuristic way by which they can acquire a fuller comprehension of Virginia Woolf's novels. It becomes constructive for people who are serious about artistic form in that it can also be applied to the appreciation of other writers.