| The Waves(1931)is acknowledged as the most experimental novel of Virginia Woolf.The novel is comprised of nine sections of soliloquies made by six characters at different ages,each section led by a brief interlude detailing a coastal scene from sunrise to sunset.The streams of consciousness endow the work with a fluidity and poetic rhythm.The innovation in form and structure facilitates Woolf’s rendering of the characters from the inside out,and inspires exploration of such concepts as individuality,community and self.The thesis explores the concepts of identity and self in The Waves,and maintains that subjectivity involves an evolutionary cycle consisting of two phases-the constitution of identity and the fulfillment of self.Chapter One sets forth the distinction and association between the concepts of identity and self.It points out that the fulfillment of self occurs only when the constitution of identity is completed and the falsity of identity is recognized.In Chapter Two,the six characters are divided into three groups based on their separate manners of identity constitution.The chapter concentrates on specific accounts of the process of identity constitution,and confirms that the process is subjective and arbitrary.Chapter Three analyzes the representation of self fulfillment in the death of identity based on the life and account of Bernard.Self emerges as the subject becomes an experiential dimension and is mutually inclusive with the world.The fulfillment of self cannot last long,but it reveals the ultimate enemy of death.To continue the empirical existence,man has to summon up effort to advance the cycle.He must constitute new identities and confront threats from death,though he knows that death is bound to win.This posture of defiance manifests the heroism of ordinary human beings.The thesis explores identity and self,which represent two phases in the evolutionary cycle of subjectivity,and contributes new perspectives to the essence of the novel. |
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