Virginia Woolf's Perspective on Fiction: An Examination of Virginia Woolf's Essays "Modern Fiction" and "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown"

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, http: //www.uni-jena.de/ (Anglistik), course: Introduction to Modern Fiction, language: English, abstract: In Virginia Woolf's Essay "Modern Fiction", which is her perhaps most quoted theoretical work, although "Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown" is the more meaningful of the two, Woolf tries to convey the modernist's approach to literature. It is very often refered to as Woolf's manifesto, although upon a first reading it does not seems to boil down to a specific point, it raises several valid questions. In this seemingly "unfinished" state of her essay lies the quality which is characteristic for her work. The constantly changing style throughout her novels and numerous sketches, essays and short stories shows her search for her own voice, her own way of treating reality, and whether or not fiction can, and if so in what way, transport the essence of life in the guise of human consciousness.