Okay, to be honest, I haven’t even done enough reading to refer to any sources. I’m afraid I’m going to end up with a close reading because that’s usually what I end up with, but anyway I’ll start.
V.Woolf is the quintessential modernist, and yet she, like any other modernist (or most any other writer, for that matter), is drawing on a long literary tradition. In the past, I’ve looked at woolf’s engagement with classical antiquity to see how she incorporates elements of Greek lyric poetry, philosophy, and drama along with Latin neoteric poetry and the atomic theory of Lucretius into her work, with an emphasis on the Waves. I called this incorporation an appropriation and was especially thinking of it in terms of her using predominately male traditions—and one enthusiastically used by men in later literary periods—to create a new modernist (feminist?) aesthetic.
When I come to Orlando, then, I’m already looking at it through this lens of appropriation and re-creation. Orlando, however, seems to me a book almost entirely informed by romanticism/romantic principles. Of particular interest to me is the author’s depiction of the artist as a romantic figure inspired by nature and motivated by high passions. At one point, the narrator follows the lead of one of the writers we’ve encountered in this class (keats?) in saying that Orlando is in love with death (great, I’ve forgotten my book).
From what little I’ve been able to gather from my sources (having looked at them only cursorily), others have also noted the romantic temperament of this protagonist. What I thought I might do to go beyond that is to look at how nature itself is so intimately tied to that same temperament and to the temperament of people in general in this novel. Woolf seems to suggest either that the weather/environment is creating the character of the age or that the character of the age is influencing the weather/environment. If possible, I’d like to know in which direction this influence flows. Or is it perhaps a mutual thing? Are the two—the character of the people and the natural world—so intimately intertwined in this novel that the influence goes both ways?
What part, if any, does gender play in this system of interconnectedness?
Another aspect I’d like to explore, which may perhaps be closely related to the question concerning (wo)man/nature’s interconnectedness, is the definite tension between the sublime and the beautiful I see in this piece. To me, it seems that the novel highlights this tension, but mainly to disrupt the traditional masculine/feminine dynamic given to us by Burke. I guess it’s not really all that surprising that she should do this in a novel all about gender slippage.
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4 comments:
Jim’s comments: What’s particular interesting to me is the relationship between the characters and the environment and the notion that influence runs in both directions, from organism to surrounding, surrounding to organism. This has everything to do with ecology, and once you read some of the texts for next class session, I think you’ll begin to see how you can approach this idea critically. I think what this demonstrates is the author’s awareness of a natural language (as opposed to a strictly human one) and her willingness to translate that discourse.
I think that exploring Orlando's "romantic temperament" is a good angle. I say this not only to cover my own butt in examining a modern writer (a first for me in the context of English studies), but also to emphasize the value of literary exemplars. Every era before affects what is written after, and discussing the significance of how authors specifically engage their predecessors, without simply focusing on minutiae characteristic of fan-support, is fascinating and important. I know what you mean by feeling like you are in such an early stage of research that you don't have much of value to say as of yet--however, after writing on my own thing for a while, I found that my sources enter at points that make sense rather than intruding in forced ways. Sometimes I get into the mode where I attempt to incorporate everything I researched--"I read it, took notes on it, and damn it I am going to include this crap in my paper whether my argument likes it or not!" On the other hand, research anxiety especially pervades when only the shadows of our potential complete thoughts can help us along.
Good thinking on paper (or screen). You do seem to have three papers here, one about Orlando's romantic temperament, one about the mutual shaping of characters and weather, and one about wo(man)'s interconnectedness. Of the three, the one that seems more fruitful is the second, the way you see Woolf playing with the relationship between weather/environment and character. This is a more focused and concrete topic, and it will allow you to do your close reading and your theoretical insights without having to wallow around in abstractions for half your paper. If you'd rather focus on one of the other topics, I'd suggest you narrow it down: what aspects of interconnectedness does the novel explore, sustain, undermine, critique, etc?
i like what debbie says re: the relationship between characters and weather. what's great about a topic like that is that it allows for the close reading that you and i like to do but is also going to require theoretical commentary, particularly about weather/environmental studies. i too agree with debbie and think this is the direction you should go, but either way i look forward to reading it along its draft process.
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