Virginia Woolf was born 1882

and died 1941.

Nearly 5 decades have passed since my

first reading of Virginia Woolf—

then I was stuck and awed by her genius

and innovation.

She liberated me from so many things.

BUT As I look

back today 

so much has changed

including me.

 —Now I am more aware

of the history and the place

of this great writers work.

Having been visited in the night

by many many thoughts

it has occurred to me that today

it is impossible to say all that needs

to be said about Virginia Woolf and

her importance to many of our lives.

Literature is key to living…

Words last.

Now to proceed. 

Mrs. Dalloway published in 1925— signaled the

birth of “stream of consciousness”—

Virginia Woolf broke the rules of the narrative with this book—

and this interior journey which takes place on a day in June

with Clarissa Dalloway has become a major literary work.

 —as we near the 100 year

celebration of the publishing of MRS. DALLOWAY

—I want to place the work in time and space.

Here goes:

1914-1918 World War 1 a war that used — small arms, machine guns, poison gas. & trench warfare as the tools of war 

—killing and wounding over a million British soldiers.

1915 GANDHI returns to India —marking the beginning of the end of  British colonial rule.

1917 The Russian Revolution

1916  the birth of DADA—a movement in art that brought radical changes to music, dance, literature, theater, and art names such as Duchamp,, Schwitters, Satie, Nijinsky,  Ball, Breton, Arp, Dali and more emerge—these creative people are  seeing a world through another lens—often fractured—and non-narrative—music of Schoenberg developed the twelve-tone technique for example  and  Eric Satie’s music was the dawn of minimalism — Ballet was liberated by Nijinsky, 

theater was assaulted by Alfred Jarry’s Ubu ROI, 

and the visual arts looked more like the casualties of WWI— artist’s images were busted, shredded. grotesque—and abstract.

1918-1920 The Spanish Flu epidemic killed millions

Well Into the 1900s, homosexual activity remained illegal and punishable by imprisonment.

1921 Wittgenstein wrote the Tractatus Logico Philosophus 

saying language is vague 

and what we mean is never certain 

and the essential work of words 

is to assert or deny facts. 

The World of Philosophy was up-ended by this work.

The early 1900’s John Maynard Keynes —Virginia’s friend and member of Bloomsbury circle brought major changes to economics—Keynes radical idea said government should spend money to mitigate recessions and depressions of post WW 1—giving birth to ides such as FDR’s New Deal here in America.

Now to begin again….

_____________________________________________

—for many Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

by far exceeds James Joyces’ Ulysses—

Joyce takes us on a journey too—

a day in the life of Leopold Bloom.

Woolf was aware of James Joyce’s book 

she wrote to T. S. ELIOT—

that she had read 200 pages and quit reading it

“never did any book so bore me” 

she then returned to reading Proust’s 

Remembrance of Things Past.

————————————————————————

So much to say so little time—JUST AN ASIDE——

Virginia Woolf was key to the feminist movement 

with her book called a ROOM OF ONE”S OWN

declaring that women need their own space was 

the beginning of women gaining a place in a man’s world

for my generation.

FOR ME: Virginia Woolf

has been a major influence on my work as 

a director and writer for the theater. I have 

produced 3 events around Woolf’s writing.

in 1974 , & 1976 & 1978 using sections from 

THE WAVES and THE MOMENT

Woolf’s Language is what makes her perfect 

for the stage. —————

_________________________________

Now to begin again——

Clarissa reflects past, present and future

just like now—as we now are forced

to be in her position

to reflect on our lives—

as the pandemic of the 21st century now

visits us and pushes us into our own 

self exploration. 

—it is a perfect

time to re-consider the importance of

this book and —Virginia Woolf—

as we change so does this revisiting

Mrs. Dalloway.