THE IDEA OF MODERNISM IN VIRGINA WOOLF'S TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

Abstract

Forerunners of literary modernism regarded 19th century literature and realism as inadequate to correspond to the modern crisis of urbanization and industrialization, and shell shock in society. Therefore, they make references to the fragmented, irrational, complex compositions within modernist conscious which is the ultimate consequence of the destruction of civilization, changing world after World War I, and rise of industrialism and capitalism. In this respect, the footprints of the war and its destructive effects are observed in Virginia Woolf’s fiction. The goal of this study is to examine Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in the light of Modernist theory with reference to “Modern Fiction” and to state that Woolf is a leading modernist figure whose work skillfully contains modernist features, especially stream of consciousness technique and interior monologues to explore the problems of disappointed modern individuals due to great losses and drastic changes in both culture and daily life, to reflect the subjectivity of truth and the impossibility of achieving the objective reality because of each character's different perceptions and to project relativity of time. Woolf’s construction of time is independent of the traditional concept of time to provide an effective and non-linear representation of characters’ consciousness within conjoined random moments with ups and downs, forward and backward movements, discontinuity and fragmentation. Eventually, the characters of the novel experience devastations of war, and they are mentally affected even though they do not physically engage with it. What war caused correlatively became a crucial determinant in shaping Woolf’s literary innovation and To the Lighthouse is the fulfillment of her vision of the modernist novel.