| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the narration of self in Virginia Woolf s Orlando: A Biography (1928), Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). The three novels point to a central problem in modernist fiction in general, and Woolf s authorship in particular, namely the difficulty of representing a consistent, autonomous and essential self - or indeed, the doubt that such a self can exist at all. Yet I claim that these narratives are distinguished by having the articulation of self as their sine qua non. The narration of self is the problem and the premise for these fictions. The study of the self/subject in Woolf s fictions is a small hot spot in Woolf-criticism, and there are several extensive studies done. The thesis presents a map of this conversation, and three tendencies within it. The map provides the background for three close-readings, and the thesis active position in Woolf-criticism. The thesis presents a break with some of the methodology which has dominated Woolf-criticism, notably the tendency to cast away the distinction between author and text. In this thesis, the three novels provide the only source texts, and each reading focuses on one self. I demonstrate that our understanding of these novels benefits from an understanding of self that can encompass both Woolf s articulation and disarticulation of the self, and transgress the post-structuralist claim for the death of the subject as well as the relative neglect of character in narratology. | eng |