Abstract
This chapter examines the radical formal experimentation of Woolf’s most mystical novel, The Waves, looking at her creation of a remarkable ghostly aesthetic. It traces the largely unexplored literary dialogue with her contemporary T.S. Eliot and shows how Woolf’s poetic prose combines the literary supernatural with an intuitive personal mysticism. The chapter shows how Woolf’s vision of the ghostly is permeated by mythic elements of epic texts such as The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy, and draws out important parallels between the mystical strain of Woolf’s writing and ideas found in Indic philosophy. It looks at how Woolf redefines the trope of the ghost, moving away from its traditional associations with fear and death, connects to an older, sacred meaning of the term, which embodies both the earthly and otherworldly aspects of human existence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Alighieri, Dante. 1955. The Divine Comedy II : Purgatory (Purgatorio), trans. by Dorothy L. Sayers. London: Penguin.
Clery, E.J. 1995. The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Conze, Edward. 2001. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development. Birmingham: Windhorse.
Eliot, T S. 1913. “Notes on Eastern Philosophy.” Eliot Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Am1691.14, Series II, no. 12.
———. 1969. The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot, 2nd edn. London: Faber and Faber.
———. 1975. Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot, Edited by Frank Kermode. London: Faber and Faber.
Ellis, Markman. 2000. The History of Gothic Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Elot, T.S. 1969. T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays, 2nd edn. London: Faber and Faber.
Kearns, Cleo McNelly.1987. T.S. Eliot and Indic Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marcus, Jane. 2004. Hearts of Darkness: White Women Write Race. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers.
Perl, Jeffrey M. 1989. Scepticism and Modern Enmity Before and After Eliot. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Raju, P. T. 1977. The Philosophical Traditions of India. London: George and Allen.
Snaith, Anna. 2005. The Exhibition is in Ruins: Virginia Woolf and Empire. Southport: The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.
Stephen, Dorothea. 1918, Studies in Early Indian Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woolf, Leonard. 1967. Downhill All the Way: An Autobiography of the Years 1919–1939. London: Hogarth Press.
———. 1976. The Waves: The Two Holograph Drafts. Edited by J.W. Graham. London: Hogarth Press.
———. 1992a. The Voyage Out. New York: Oxford University Press.
———. n.d.a. “Four Voices.” Monks House Papers, University of Sussex Library, vol. 45, MSS B.2m., section B.5.
———. n.d.b. “Odyssey.” Monks House Papers, University of Sussex Library, vol. 34, MSS A.21, section B. 4.
———. n.d.c. “Purgatorio.” Monks House Papers, University of Sussex Library, vol. 51, MSS B. 3b
Woolf, Virginia. 1987. ‘Across the Border’ (1918). In The Essays of Virginia Woolf, edited by Andrew McNeillie, 4 vols. London: Hogarth Press, 1984–1994, II.
Woolf, Virginia. 1985. “A Sketch of the Past”. In Moments of Being, edited by Jeanne Schulkind. London: Harvest.
Woolf, Virginia. 1980. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, edited by Anne Olivier Bell with Andrew McNeillie, 5 vols. London: Hogarth Press, 1977–1984, III.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Banerjee, S. (2016). Spectral Poetics in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves . In: Anderson, E., Radford, A., Walton, H. (eds) Modernist Women Writers and Spirituality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53036-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53036-3_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53035-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53036-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)