An Intertextual Study Of The Hours And Mrs. Dalloway

Michael Cunningham is a famous contemporary writer in America and his novelThe Hours which modeled on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway was published in1998.The Hours describes an ordinary one-day life of three women in different era respectively.The author employs simple words, rich images and detailed descriptions to reveal thetrouble and the true meaning of human life. At the same time, it also shows the readersthe immortal charm of classic literary works and the realistic meaning of literature,stimulating people to reread the classics and making further confirmation of life andsocial function of literary classics. Virginia Woolf is the representative of the stream ofconsciousness novel and the feminism pioneer. Mrs. Dalloway was published in1925and it is one of the masterpieces of the stream of consciousness novels. Woolf reveals thelacks in women’s status and their constrains in patriarchal society by describing theone-day life of the heroines. In addition, it also shows the emptiness and trouble ofpeople’s lives. Michael Cunningham makes a comprehensive intertextual description ofMrs. Dalloway from the characters and the images to the themes. While it isn’t a simpleimitation but shows his own ingenuity. He makes a profound discussion through thevivid writing and exquisite descriptions to both show his respect for Woolf and expresshis own point of view.“Intertextuality” was proposed by the French poststructuralist scientist JuliaKristeva in1966. Intertextuality, as a text theory in Western modernism cultural trends,not only summarizes and highlights a general and rich cultural phenomenon, but alsorefers the inter-text and interaction between texts as the constitutive factors of literature,emphasizing to explore and interpret the meanings of literary works in the text relations.Hence, it is both a new literary concept and a new literary method. Literaryintertextuality can be seen as people’s further understanding of literature and it helps tore-examine the writing and reading behavior in the general sense. The text-orientatedintertextuality theory develops towards the author, the reader, the real world and theliterary world and so on with different emphases. It gives the intertextual study amultiplex uniqueness due to its uncertainty and openness. Therefore, it has both thecultural significance and aesthetic significance to study The Hours and Mrs. Dallowaywith intertextuality. This thesis will interpret the two works from the perspective of intertextuality and itincludes an introduction, the main body and a conclusion:Introduction gives a brief introduction of the two writers—Michael Cunninghamand Virginia Woolf and their works—The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway as well assummarizes the home and abroad research status of the two works, pointing out thepurpose and meaning of this thesis.The main body is made up of three chapters:Chapter One states the intertextuality of the main characters in the two works. Atfirst, it will sort and introduce the intertextuality as well as its development; then thisthesis will give a detail analysis of the main characters of the two works, includingVirginia Woolf, Laura Brown, Clarissa Vaughan and Richard Brown in The Hours andMrs. Dalloway and Septimus Smith in Mrs. Dalloway.Chapter Two elaborates the intertextuality of the images in the two works andinterpret these images as well as their representative meanings and functions thatincludes June morning; room; party; water; mirror; flower and war to reveal MichaelCunningham’s deconstruction and reconstruction of Mrs. Dalloway.Chapter Three interprets the intertextuality of the themes in the two works to showMichael Cunningham’s critically inheritance. It includes feminism; homosexuality;suicide and death. This thesis will give a careful analysis and study of each theme: therise and development of feminism; homosexuality from the vague to show and itsinfluence; the reason and extension of death and the importance of facing up to it.Conclusion will explain the practical significance and influence of The Hours; thenovelty of Michael Cunningham’s writing techniques and the fineness of structure; theimmortal charm and life functions of literature as well as the mutual influence anddependence of the authors, works and readers.