International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature E-ISSN: 2200-3452 & P-ISSN: 2200-3592 www.ijalel.aiac.org.au Blooming of the Novel in the Bloomsbury Group: An Investigation to the Impact of the Members of Bloomsbury Group on the Composition of the Selected Works of Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster Seyedeh Zahra Nozen1*, Bahman Amani2, Fatemeh Ziyarat2 1Amin Police Science University, Iran, 2University of Malayer, Iran, Corresponding Author: SeyedehZahra Nozen, E-mail: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history “For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of Received: June 16, 2017 thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is Accepted: August 27, 2017 behind the single voice…”. Woolf’s belief has been put to the test in the Bloomsbury Group and Published: December 01, 2017 this paper intends to investigate the validity of her claim through a critical analysis of the selected works of its novelist members. In a central part of London during the first half of the twentieth Volume: 6 Issue: 7 century a group of intellectual and literary writers, artists, critics and an economist came together Special Issue on Language & Literature which later on was labeled as Bloomsbury group. The group’s members had an influential role Advance access: September 2017 in blooming novel in a different form of expression and profoundly affect its literary figures, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, in the composition of their fictionsThe Waves, A Room of One’s Conflicts of interest: None Own, To the Lighthouse and Forster’s A Room with a view and Howards End. The formation Funding: None of Bloomsbury circle acted as a bridge from the Victorian bigotries and narrow-mindedness to the unbounded era of modernism as they searched for universal peace, individual liberalism and human accomplishments due to ideal social norms. They freely exchanged their views on variety of subjects without any limitation. The reasons behind their popularity compared to several contemporary groups were their innumerable works, the clarification of their lives through their diaries, biographies and autobiographies and their diverse kinds of activities such as criticism, painting, politics and literary writings. They were adherents of truth, goodness, enjoyment of beautiful object, intrinsic values, aesthetics, friendship and personal relationship. Intellectual intimacy and cooperation can be considered as the main attribute of its members as they collaborate with each other and employ the fundamental tenets of the group within their works. The modern style of its artists as post-impressionist highly affects the narration technique of its literary figures. These novelists tried to narrate the verbal utterances in a visual way as if the whole of the story is depicted on a canvas. Furthermore, this paper tries to discover the role of the non-literary (painters and critics) members of the group in blooming and forming of a different and novel kind of narration technique, namely ‘stream of consciousness’, through the visual impact of the painter and the discussion method of critic members of the group. Key words: Bloomsbury Group, Friendship, Intellectual Intimacy, Virginia Woolf, E M Foster INTRODUCTION the period in which the works were written by investigating The first acquaintance and colloquium of the members the hierarchy of each member’s writings. The contempora- prompted the public and many writers to figure out the rea- neity of the member’s works could help the readers to figure sons of its formation. S.P Rosenbaum who was famous as out the similar conceptions. Bloomsbury’s expert in his book The Bloomsbury Group: Craufurd D. Goodwin in his paper “The Bloomsbury A Collection of Memoires and Commentary elaborated on Group as Creative Community” is concerned with the origin different aspects of the group and examined their favored of the group, their practical social, political and economic conversations and topics. He also collected the member’s di- activities and compared it to other groups. He asserted that, aries, letters and autobiographies which were recited within it was an informal group without fixed members, an exact the Memoire Club to inform the readers about their personal official rules for the new comers and a determined leader. lives and desires. In addition, he elaborated on the literary The heyday of the group was before World War I in which history of the member’s works in his book Preface to a Liter- their literary endeavor and collaboration added to their rep- ary History of the Bloomsbury Group as a representation of utation. Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.7p.323 324 IJALEL 6(7):323-331 The fundamental ideal of the group’s members was friend- they cooperated with the main author to create literary works ship and personal relations which were discussed by Carrol which became popular and permanent. Liana as “Notions of Friendship in the Bloomsbury Group: G.E. Moore, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and Virginia Theoretical Approach Woolf” and considered friendship as a means of trophy espe- cially for women to cure their shortcomings and helped them The Bloomsbury circle which included a group of literary powerfully encounter the social and cultural misjudgments. figures, artists, critics and journalist began their meetings in Friendship increased their self-esteem to recognize their true 1905 at the house of Stephen’s children; Vanessa Bell, Vir- identity and stabilize their position as women in society. ginia Woolf, Adrian and Thoby Stephen to discuss issues and Friendship was a term coined by the philosopher G. E. Moore share opinions. They gathered together irregularly and any as the originator of Bloomsbury circle to help the members common and trivial issues considered as serious discussions cope with the complexities of social life. Friendship for them that brought about some extraordinary works based on these was for the sake of pleasure and mutual interactions to ex- intellectual interactions and exchange of thought. The first change ideas and collaborate for their new works of art. public acquaintance of Bloomsbury Group was in 1910 and Geoffrey Moore in his book, The Significance of Blooms- 1912 by the success of two post-impressionist exhibitions in bury, elaborates on the ideology and ideals of the group that London which were held by Roger Fry. The members were were based on G.E. Moore’s philosophical book Principia the pioneers of anti-war movement and almost none of them Ethica which mirrored the critical and aesthetical writings participated in the two great wars. They were hostile to the of the members especially the novels of E.M. Forster and wrong policies which brought about destruction in human Virginia Woolf. He concentrated on the set of principles that life as they rejected Victorian conventions and social norms. each member should follow such as the intrinsic values, the The members believed in a same philosophy and belief to nature of goodness and aesthetics. shape an ideal society even in tumult of wars or the chaos of Kerstin Elert deals with another significant issue of the social and political change. They favored hedonism as they Bloomsbury group as womanhood in his dissertation “Por- favored to act and think according to their individual appeal. traits of Women in Selected Works by Virginia Woolf and The main concern of this group was personal relationship E.M. Forster” and mirrored the Victorian doctrines of wom- and friendship to achieve a great pleasure. Most of Blooms- anhood within the context of family and society. In their bury’s literature and speech were revolutionary since the novels, they mostly represented a Victorian subordinate members had a general criticism toward all established do- woman who completely devoted herself to her family as a mains. They were considered as social, political, cultural and responsible wife and a sacrificing mother and also depicted educational reformers who desired to alter wrong beliefs and a young heroine who revolted against Victorian ideals and policies through different utterances in their works and arts. wanted to achieve her rights as an individual liberal person Bloomsbury members were the proponents of Aestheticism and turned to a New-Woman who no longer restricted to a in 1980s and favored form rather than content and did their distinct social codes. artistic and literary activities according to the formalistic In addition, K. Yaseen Ashraf in his thesis “Treatment of viewpoint. Despite the group’s informality it became widely Time in Virginia Woolf’s Novels” unbounded Woolf from known and prosperous due to its diverse forms of profes- the sequence of time. He is concerned with Woolf’s attention sions as novelists, painters, critics, journalists, economics, to her character’s flow of consciousness and the interpreta- philosophers and biographers. They became popular through tion of internal occurrences rather than the external events. their achievements in modern literature, new form of nar- Since the human consciousness could not bound to a certain ration in novels, macroeconomics and painting exhibitions limit of time and travels through the present, past and future based on post-impressionist movement. experiences and memories. He elaborated on Woolf’s dif- ferent views toward time during the production of her eight novels. MEMBERS OF BLOOMSBURY GROUP This study elaborates on the mutual interactions of the Bloomsbury Group was a circle of British artists, intellec- Bloomsbury’s members on each other’s works and reveals tuals and friends who highly influenced each other’s ideas their intellectual cooperation. It also concentrates on the col- and literary works.