The Decline Of Empire: A Postcolonial Interpretation Of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

Virginia Woolf(1882-1941) is a notable novelist, feminist and critic and The Waves is astylized and poetical work among her writings. The thesis consists of five chapters, analyzingThe Waves from the perspective of postcolonialism. Chapter One delivers a brief introduction toVirginia Woolf and The Waves, literature review and the theory of postcolonialism. The theoryapplied in my thesis is mainly the postcolonialism perspective in Culture and Imperialism.Chapter Two concentrates on the cultural image of British Empire which symbolizes thesuperiority of the empire. On the other hand, bias against India also reflects the culturalsuperiority from the opposite aspect. The inborn sense of cultural superiority makes thecharacters that they feel civilized than Indians and they are obligated to control India.Chapter Three analyzes the characters from the perspective of postcolonialism. Percivalrepresents British Empire and he emblems the glorious time of the empire. Louis, who is acolonized character, transfers himself into a colonizer in order to integrate himself into thenative people, but he knows exactly he will never be one of them in subconsciousness. Rhoda isan in-between victim in the cultural superiority society, and she is seeking her identity all thetime between the colonizer and the colonized, but never makes it, finally she chooses to commitsuicide to release herself.Chapter Four is about the inevitable fate of British Empire by analyzing the death ofPercival, the change of characters’ view of the world and the underlying meaning of theinterludes.Chapter Five draws a conclusion of the research. Woolf’s conception of empire anddifferent aspects of The Waves become clearer after reading the novel from the perspective ofpostcolonialism.