engleski

Dark Pools in Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves'

Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves is permeated by references to water, starting from the title itself to the water landscapes that introduce the novel's chapters. One of the most conspicuous images of water appears in the reveries of the most unusual character in the novel – Rhoda. Excluded from social reality, she daydreams about a landscape of ‘dark pools’ that ‘lie on the other side of the world’, beyond the reality she experiences as overwhelmingly intense. The overpowering sensations prevent her from translating experience into a continuous flow, with one moment following another. Therefore, Rhoda occupies a timeless space, bombarded by intensities she cannot handle. In this presentation, I analyze specific aspects of water imagery in The Waves in relation to Henri Bergson’s concept of ‘duration’, which refers to a subjective notion of time, expressible only in qualities which disrupt linear temporality. How does freedom from mechanistic time, experienced by Rhoda, disable her from interacting with the environment? And how is the personal experience of time linked to the water landscapes in the novel?

Virginia Woolf, 'The Waves', Bergson, time, 'duration', water

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