The Consciousness effect: Representation of Subjectivity in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" and James Joyce's "Ulysses"

1. ◆The Consciousness effect:
Representation of Subjectivity in
Virginia Woolf’s “To the
Lighthouse” & James Joyce’s
“Ulysses”
Name: Vidhya Pandya
Sem-3
Pa.no. 9: Modernist Literature
Email id: vidhupandya10497@gmail.com
Department of English,MKBU.

2. ●What is Stream of Consciousness?
- Stream of consciousness was a phrase used by Philosopher & Psychologist
“William James” in his “Principles of Psychology” to describe the unbroken flow of
perceptions, thoughts and feelings in the waking mind.
- Stream of consciousness is a style or technique of writing that tries to capture
the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by
incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, and
rough grammar.
- Stream of consciousness writing is associated with the early 20th-century
Modernist movement.
- Stream of consciousness writing allows readers to “listen in” on
a character's thoughts. The technique often involves the use of language in
unconventional ways in an attempt to replicate the complicated pathways that
thoughts take as they unfold and move through the mind. In short, it's the use of
language to mimic the "streaming" nature of "conscious" thought”. Stream of
consciousness can be written in the first person as well as the third person.

3. ●Distinctiveness of Both’s Writings:-
- Joyce’s narrative technique is more experimental than the one
used by Virginia Woolf who maintains a sort logical order.
- Virginia Woolf’s characters never acquire a myth
dimension as the ones by Joyce in “Ulysses”.
- Virginia Woolf’s characters belong to the upper class whereas
the once by Joyce are middle & low class deeply connected to
Dublin.
- Paralysis and escape as theme seem to prevail in Joyce whereas
in Woolf a larger stock of themes is portrayed as feminism,
ambiguity, war and neurosis.
- Joyce characters are more victims of themselves rather than of
outer circumstances , whereas most of characters by Virginia
Woolf try away to react to the outer conditions by adaptation.

4. ●Representation of Subjectivity in Both Work:-
- The works of Virginia Woolf & James Joyce are a landmark in aesthetic
History.
- Both writer’s linguistic experimentation represents the ‘high
modernist’ aesthetic system with its emphasis on consciousness
rather then character or naturalism.
- Both Woolf and Joyce use modulations in genre to shape & reproduce
the effect of reality on consciousness.
- “Time” is a subjective process in both novels. The readers is
embedded in it and experiences it in different ways.
- As both novels are concerned with the representation of States of
mind. Time is also embedded in the consciousness of the characters.

5. “For she knew that he had turned his head as she turned; he was watchin
gher. She knew that he was thinking, You are more beautiful than ever.An
d she felt herself very beautiful.”
In this passage and elsewhere in the novel, there are many things occurring in
any
moment simultaneously. Mrs. Ramsey’s words, feelings and thoughts are filter
ed
through the third person narration. This instance of reported or indirect speech
allowsthe narrator to let the reader know what Mrs. Ramsey is thinking; arguab
ly in her own
inflection, without the conventional authorial flagging.
To be Continued...

6. - If the self in Woolf’s novel is inextricably linked with its
changing experiences, the same can be found in “Ulysses”.
- There is a remarkable artistry in the very act of perception in
both the novels.
“Elton Uliana “ who argued that....Woolf and Joyce emphasized
not onlyBin “To the Lighthouse” and “Ulysses” but throughout their
career the urgency of reformulating language and literary
representation by diverging radically from modes of realistic
aesthetic.

7. ●So What ?
- One hand it’s proves that “ Stream of Consciousness” is
depending on the writer that how he/she used that theory.
- On the other hand Steam of Consciousness is not always
about psychology. It’s a free way of thoughts but although
how the thoughts are is very important.
- And it also provide a new perspective to the novels.

8. ●Work Cited:-
https://www.academia.edu/12887219/The_Consciousness_Effect_Representati
on_of_Subjectivity_in_Virginia_Wools_To_the_Lighthouse_and_James_Joyces_
UlyssesBy : Elton Uliana