To What Extent is Mrs Dalloway a Modernist Novel?
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English Literature
To What Extent is Mrs Dalloway a Modernist Novel?
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the world of literature was undergoing some changes in style and perspective. Just after the turn of the century – the previous having seen massive changes in the industrial world – the literary community was presented with one of greatest tragedies in human history: the First World War. This international conflict, mixed with the changes in industry and society from the late 1800s to the mid 1920s allowed authors like Virginia Woolf to present works, like Mrs Dalloway: a novel based on one character, from multiple perspectives; based around one eighteen hour period, but shifting between past and present with the all the simplicities and complexities of a stream of consciousness based work.
The nineteenth century bore the Realist movement in the arts. Realism sought to present the world as it is: truthfully and without artistic license, even if that view is dark, sordid and macabre. The world was introduced to working class heroes and tragic heroins like Carmen – a cigarette factory worker – in Bizet's opera Carmen and Tess Durbeyfield – a country milkmaid – in Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The Realists wished to turn away from their forebears Romanticised ideals and present the truth of the world in all forms of art. Similarly, half a century later, the next generation of artists and writers wished to again, turn from the ideals of those that came before and present the world in what they believed to be the only true and honest form. Modernists believed that the world wasn't as simple as one perspective and that all the previous conventions of the arts, philosophy and society had become outdated with the advancements of the world after the Industrial Revolution and rapid growth of towns and cities: therefore, the 'truth' of the Realists was no longer truthful or relevant.
In terms of 'the novel', many of
English Literature
To What Extent is Mrs Dalloway a Modernist Novel?
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the world of literature was undergoing some changes in style and perspective. Just after the turn of the century – the previous having seen massive changes in the industrial world – the literary community was presented with one of greatest tragedies in human history: the First World War. This international conflict, mixed with the changes in industry and society from the late 1800s to the mid 1920s allowed authors like Virginia Woolf to present works, like Mrs Dalloway: a novel based on one character, from multiple perspectives; based around one eighteen hour period, but shifting between past and present with the all the simplicities and complexities of a stream of consciousness based work.
The nineteenth century bore the Realist movement in the arts. Realism sought to present the world as it is: truthfully and without artistic license, even if that view is dark, sordid and macabre. The world was introduced to working class heroes and tragic heroins like Carmen – a cigarette factory worker – in Bizet's opera Carmen and Tess Durbeyfield – a country milkmaid – in Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The Realists wished to turn away from their forebears Romanticised ideals and present the truth of the world in all forms of art. Similarly, half a century later, the next generation of artists and writers wished to again, turn from the ideals of those that came before and present the world in what they believed to be the only true and honest form. Modernists believed that the world wasn't as simple as one perspective and that all the previous conventions of the arts, philosophy and society had become outdated with the advancements of the world after the Industrial Revolution and rapid growth of towns and cities: therefore, the 'truth' of the Realists was no longer truthful or relevant.
In terms of 'the novel', many of