Abstract:Virginia Woolf is commonly considered as a famous essayist and literary critic of the twenties century 20 English literature as well as one of the representative of the stream-of-consciousness writers. Mrs. Dalloway represents the peak of Virginia Woolf’s achievement as a novelist. Virginia Woolf concentrated the plots and space on one day in summer of 1919 in London, utilizing simple plot and different span of time but reflecting Woolf’s profound thought. In Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf uses an amount of free association to integrate the various fragments into a coherence unity. On the other hand, in order to clarify characters’ consciousness, Woolf employs three association methods(spatial connection, central stimulus connection, timing tunnel connection). Characters’ intricate and fragmented association forms a distinct association net and makes consciousness pieces and life experiences in different time spans are endowed with different meanings. Woolf expresses her reflection on life and death, war, social system, sanity and insanity, sympathy with victims. This paper focuses on the analysis of the artistic effect of free association with three different association methods.
Key Words: free association; stream-of-consciousness; connection method; impression; time; space
摘要:弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫是20世纪英国文学著名的散文家和文学评论家,同时也是意识流小说的重要代表作家之一。《达洛卫夫人》代表着弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫作为一名小说家的最高成就。伍尔夫将Mrs. Dalloway的情节和空间浓缩到1919年夏季, 伦敦的一天。用简单的情节和时间跨度,体现伍尔夫深刻的思想内。Virginia Woolf 运用了大量的Free association in Mrs. Dalloway将转瞬即逝的意识碎片组合成一个和谐的整体。为了不混淆人物的意识活动,她使用了三种联接方式(空间联接、中心刺激物、共同的主题),使人物复杂而支离破碎的意识形成一个相对清晰地联想网络,同时使得意识碎片和生活体验在不同的时间序列内有了不同的意义,以此来表达关于生与死,战争,社会制度阴暗面,理智与疯狂,对受难者的同情的的思考。本文将以三种不同的自由联想方式出发,分析自由联想在Mrs. Dalloway中的艺术效果。
关键词:自由联想;意识流;联接方式;印象;时间;空间
Virginia Woolf uses free association to organize and arrange the story and the plot in Mrs. Dalloway. The connections of the arrangement and consciousness often reflect the span of time, the changes of space. Free association is composed of memories, feelings, and imaginations so that it seems in chaos, illogical. Actually, there are intrinsic clues in character’s free association, and the three associative connection methods is the key to catch the clues and they are a way to analyze the artistic effect of free association. Thus characters’ consciousness is traceable in the whole progress of association. On the other hand, the three associative methods lead readers to appreciate the artistic characteristic of free association and help to reveal the themes of Mrs. Dalloway.
The real time often is short, transient. On the contrary, one’s association is limitless, capable of extending. A specific association object can string the novel and reveal the theme of novel; many “moments of being” in character’s association with a specific thing demonstrate the endless moment as if the time stopped elapsing; free association breaks up the traditional narrative and the limit of time and space so that the focus of the novel shift the focus from eternal world to one’s internal world.