Analyse:
Study the two excerpts from Mrs Dalloway before you answer the questions.
The first excerpt from Mrs Dalloway is a good example of the stream of consciousness narrative mode that Virginia Woolf was famous for. Stream of consciousness means that a writer attempts to depict and realistically portray the myriad of very different thoughts, memories, and ideas that pass through a narrator's mind.
Explain what makes the first excerpt an example of stream of consciousness.The language used in the first excerpt may be described as poetic or lyrical. Can you give examples of this?
A theme in Mrs Dalloway is that people are connected, even when they do not realise it.
Study the second excerpt with this in mind: What is the experience that both Mrs Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith share?
Research:
Work alone or in pairs. Choose one of the topics and prepare an audio recording of what you find.
Explain what characterises modernist literature.
Virginia Woolf belonged to the Bloomsbury group, which consisted of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists. Find out more about the group and their significance in the modernist period.
Find out more about Virginia Woolf and her work.
How did World War I influence literature and art? Explain with reference to examples.
Create:
Found poetry is a type of poetry where we take words, lines, or whole passages from existing texts, and play around with them to create a poem.
Use words, lines, or phrases from the excerpts from Mrs Dalloway and make a poem.
Example:
This moment
Solemnity
Suspense
Susurration
The leaden circles dissolve in the air
is air
is a wave
against my ear
the trudge
the trundle
the uproar
of cars, cars, cars
and omnibuses, vans, and people
shuffling
pushing
moving
always moving on
Big Ben strikes
Loud
London
Life
This moment of June
Write:
Find an example of a work by a modernist artists and write a text where you discuss what makes it modernist. Suggested artists: Barbara Hepworth, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis.
Write a text where you discuss the idea that all people are connected. Refer to at least two literary works in your discussion, for example Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and 'No Man is an Island' by John Donne.