Woolf, Virginia – life and poetic

Virginia Woolf – life and poetic: main characteristics, stylistic techniques and themes

Virginia Woolf was born in London in 1882 in a good family: her father was a well-known essayst and her mother was a beautiful aristocratic woman.
Woolf received her education at home, from her parents and governesses.
She spent her childhood in Cornwall, that was an inspiration for her future works.
Her parents’ death was a shock for Virginia, in fact, this event determined the birth of mental disturbs.
Virginia Woolf refused the traditional way of writing and focused on the human’s mental and inner experiences with his complex consciousness.
So, Virginia Woolf abandoned the traditional technique for a new literary form and style: she eliminated the traditional plot and settings and the direct dialogue and she started to use an interior monologue, that focuses on character’s inner and psychological life and intimate thoughts.
In her poetic, the external events lost their importance except for their influence on the inner life.
According to Bergson’s philosophical theory, Virginia Woolf tried to compress the mental processes into minimum time units.
One of the main characteristics of Virginia Woolf’s poetic is “moment of being”. They are particular events in a character’s inner life that lets him or her reflects on his/her own life.