Virginia Woolf as equilibrist : the moment of vision and the androgynous mind

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Whitney Grove Vanderwerff (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Randolph Bulgin

Abstract: Current assessments based more upon Virginia Woolf's feminism than upon her novels as literature threaten to make of her a cult-heroine, whose image is now printed upon t-shirts and tote bags. This study asserts, however, that Virginia Woolf's novels reflect her fictive search for a balance between what she called the masculine and the feminine sides of the brain. To the masculine side, she ascribed qualities that are rational, factual, prosaic, practical, and analytical; to the feminine side, the more intuitive, imaginative, poetic, sensitive, and creative characteristics. More important, minds reflecting equilibrium between these "opposing forces" are called "androgynous," and through characters whose minds reflect such balance and wholeness, Virginia Woolf conveys the experience of the moment of vision.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 1978
Subjects
Woolf, Virginia, $d 1882-1941 $x Criticism and interpretation
Woolf, Virginia, $d 1882-1941 $x Philosophy
Woolf, Virginia, $d 1882-1941 $x Characters
Androgyny (Psychology) in literature

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