| dc.description.abstract | This thesis aims to show that Wagner's theories of Gesamtkunstwerk were a
pre-occupation in Woolf's work throughout her career. The introduction
explores Gesamtkunstwerk theory, tracing its development in theories
concerning the combination of art forms, I go on to show how Woolf uses the
Voyage Out to explore what the modern novel can learn from musical arts, while
Jacob's Room adds painting to music as a significant field of interest for
Woolf Mrs Dalloway adds to the complexity of combination, for I will
demonstrate that in this novel a Nietzschean interpretation of Wagner's ideas
found in The Birth of Tragedy is detectable, allowing Woolf to compare the
motivation of more extreme avant-garde groups. The chapter on To the
Lighthouse will consider Woolf's evaluation of her parents' cultural
background and the influence of Roger Fry on her developing aesthetic theory
of combination. I shall argue that understanding of these areas allows Woolf to
begin to experiment with her own form of Gesamtkunstwerk. It is in The
Waves that the connection with Wagner is most obvious. Here, I believe
Woolf shifts the focus of attention from Wagnerian theories of
Gesamtkunstwerk to the Modernists' development of such ideas,
demonstrating her knowledge of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Looking closely
at the 1915 Raid Scene in The Years, I intend to show that Woolf's thinking on
the concept of combination is equally radical in this novel which is often
considered to be more conventional. I will go on to suggest that Between the
Acts, widely acknowledged to indicate a crisis in Woolf's confidence in
Modernism, marks a turning point in her thinking about the possibilities of
combining the arts to achieve Gesamtkunstwerk. I will argue that in this piece
Woolf provides us with all the elements used to create unity in the previous
works and yet they are never wholly united. Woolf, however, is not suggesting
that Gesamtkunstwerk is an impossibility, she is rather indicating that the
audience lacks the ability to provide the stage for such a piece to exist. | en_US |
