Feminine Writing and the Problem of the Self - An Examination of Virginia Woolf's Novels in the Light of Recent Critical and Psychoanalytic Theories

Aug 21, 2026

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This thesis examines Virginia Woolf’s major novels through the theoretical lenses of Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and contemporary French feminist theorists, especially Julia Kristeva. It argues that Woolf’s modernist inquiry into the crisis of the self aligns with the search for a specifically feminine mode of writing and challenges patriarchal categories governing social experience. The study uses post-structural critique of representation and psychoanalytic models to assess Woolf’s concept of androgyny, including how repression and the “unconscious” become voices within Woolf’s narrative forms.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages319

Reading Time13 h 24 min

AccessFree to download

Preface

Chapter I: Feminism and Modernism in Woolf

Chapter II: Jacob's Room

Chapter III: Mrs. Dalloway

Chapter IV: To the Lighthouse

Chapter V: Orlando

Chapter VI: The Waves

Notes

Bibliography

University of Warwick institutional repository:http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4406 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyrightPlease scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you tocite it.Our policy information is available from the repository home page. SUMMARY This thesis examines the major exerimental novels of Virginia oo1fin the light of the theoretical work of Jacques Derrida,Jacques Lacanand contemnorary French feminist theorists,Darticularly Julia kris teva.It aims to denons trate that in oolf's work a modernist investigation ofthe crisis of the self coincides with the quest for a specificallyfeminine mode of writing, It answers Anglo-American feminists who haveseen these novels as a withdrawal from social experience by showing thatthese texts engage and interroga te the very forms and categories -- patriarchal,in koolf's view --of such experience. This Joolfian projectanticibates and is illumina ted by the critique of representation inliterary theory after struc turalism. Her modernist works seek to find avoice for all that is repressed-- the unconscious,or Kristeva's semio tic--in the dominant socie ty. But to dissolve or decons truct patriarchalcategories and unleash the repressed is only one aspect of Woolf's project.She also seeks to main tain a place and voice for a subject coherent enoughto be an effective social agent,andiKristeva's dialectic be tween semioticand the tic phases serves as a model for examining Woolf's own concept ofand rogyny. Woolf's experimen tal short stories andJacob'sRoom partake in,yetdecisively problema tize,the quest for fullmeaning or symbol. Theelegiac tone of this novel becomes the more positive enactment of schizo-phrenic modes of being in Mrs.Dalloway and the undoing of the philosopherRamsay by 'feminine'modes of me taohor in To the Ligh thouse,0rlando isWoolf's major expression of her ideal of androgyny,a dialectic of valuesthat previously were more tigidly polarized. The Waves partially returnsto the concerns of Jacob³s Room,revealing that the Utopian dialectic inpart remains a painful ambivalence,but articulating its own impressivetheoretical unders tanding of issues embodied in practice in Orlando。 Feminine Writing and the Problem of the Self:an Examination of Virginia Woolf's Novels inthe Light of Recent Critical and PsychoanalyticTheories Makiko Minow Pinkney submitted in fulfilment ofthe requirements ofthe degree of Ph.D. University of WarwickDepartment of EnglishApril,1985 CONTENTS Preface ii Abbreviations V Chapter I:Feminism and Modernism in Woolf 1 Chapter Ⅱ:Jacob's Room 29 Chapter III:Mrs.Dalloway 74 Chapter IV:To the Lighthouse 118 Chapter V:Orlando 173 Chapter VI:The Waves 231 Notes 284 Bibliography # PREFACE Central to my analysis of Woolf's work are five novels: Jacob'sRoom,Mrs.Dalloway,To the Lighthouse,Orlando,The Waves. These arewritten in pursuit of Woolf's modernist project,but as I shall arguebelow,her modernism was at the same time a feminist subversion ofconventions,and I will analyze the ways in which Woolf actually effectsthis fusion of her concerns in her texts. I will concentrate on herfiction in this thesis,an area of her work that has been,surprisingly,comparatively underemphasized in the recent,intense revival of interestin Woolf. Directed towards her centenary in 1982,the revival has at itscentre a 'family'industry which includes Quentin Bell's biography,thepublication of Woolf's innumerable letters and diaries, and previouslyunpublished material. As a consequence of this extensive,new access toWoolf's personal life,there has flourished a biographical and psycho-analytical criticism,but this latter has tended to focus on her actualmental

FAQs

What central novels does the thesis analyze?

The thesis focuses on five Woolf novels: Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves.

Which theoretical frameworks guide the analysis?

The study reads Woolf in relation to Derrida and Lacan, and to French feminist psychoanalytic theory, particularly Julia Kristeva.

What argument does the thesis make about Woolf’s feminine writing?

It contends that Woolf’s investigation of the self’s crisis converges with a quest for a feminine mode of writing that interrogates patriarchal forms shaping experience.

Aug 21, 2026

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