A Spatial Study Of Virginia Woolf's Mrs.dalloway

Virginia Woolf,proverbially considered as the modernist pioneer,has established her reputation in the canon of English literary history.Not content with traditionally fictional writing,Woolf experiments painstakingly in her fiction to explore new ways to represent life,people,history,and the society.However,Woolf suffers from mental illness in her entire life.On March 28 th,1941,feeling the onset of another devastating breakdown,she committed suicide,and left behind a considerable quantity of novels and essays.Critical studies centering on the author and her works range widely from the form of her fiction,her theory of fiction,psychoanalysis,feminism,to post-colonialism,narratology,ecocriticism,and even to interdisciplinary perspectives.Mrs.Dalloway,as her most gifted work,unsurprisingly gave rise to heated discussion after its coming out.Up to now,numerous studies have been published abroad and at home.Among them criticism upon space issues is not a small branch.Most relevant spatial studies concentrate on the male/female space,public/private space,or imperial/colonial space,oftentimes being restricted in the opposite binary opposition.This kind of dichotomy misses out the possibility of an otherness.Based on a different perspective,I argue that Mrs.Dalloway does not follow the dichotomous logic of space division;there exists a radical other space—Thirdspace.This thesis begins with a probe into the body space,exploring the discipline and alienation of individual bodies as spatial existence.Then it goes on analyzing the repressive urban space.Lastly,it examines the resisting space—Thirdspace,where characters achieve self-emancipation.This thesis consists of five parts.Introduction includes a brief account of Virginia Woolf and her works,relevant literature review,theoretical foundation,and the significance of this thesis.Chapter One focuses on the body space,examining the discipline of individual body in capitalist society and its alienation in everyday life.Chapter Two sheds light on the repressive urban space,exploring the ubiquitous hierarchy,hegemony and patriarchy incarnated in space.Chapter Three discusses thepossibility of Thirdspace by analyzing Clarissa's attic room,Septimus' s sitting room and Elizabeth's remapping of the city.Conclusion offers a summary of the whole thesis and its argument.