This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The changing novel form : Virginia Woolf and John Banville Lim, Yiru 2015 Lim, Y. (2015). The changing novel form : Virginia Woolf and John Banville. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/65343 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/65343 Downloaded on 30 Sep 2021 08:05:44 SGT THE CHANGING NOVEL FORM: VIRGINIA WOOLF AND JOHN BANVILLE LIM YIRU SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 2015 THE CHANGING NOVEL FORM: VIRGINIA WOOLF AND JOHN BANVILLE LIM YIRU School of Humanities and Social Sciences A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A piece of written work is rarely completed alone, much less a doctoral thesis, which attempts to try the patience of anyone swept up in the maelstrom of its creation. The number of people who have gone into producing this thesis extend far beyond the mythical idea of the lone author holed up in her alchemist’s laboratory, trying to distil the rare philosopher’s stone within her field of study. My heartfelt gratitude goes to my supervisor, Associate Professor Neil Murphy, who has been a constant source of succour, sanity and support. Thank you for your infinite patience, your lovely words, your timely interventions, your open, fascinating mind and your humour. Working with you has made all the difference. The apprentice has learnt her lessons well. I would also like to thank Professor Dame Hermione Lee who kindly gave her time to supervise me at the University of Oxford. Your guidance, insights and ruthless edits contributed greatly to the refining of my ideas and the eventual direction my thesis would take. To Professor Shirley Chew, thank you for the periodic reminders, encouraging words, help and especially your infectious enthusiasm for all things literary. You were oftentimes a buoy to me and this journey would not have been the same without you. To Professor C. J. Wee Wan-Ling, your support and presence have always motivated me. It has been wonderful and a privilege to learn from you and work with you both during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. And to my family and friends who have been walking alongside me throughout my time in graduate school, thank you for always keeping pace, giving me a push if I needed it, and making the voyage colourful and precious. I cherish you all. Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………...…...iii List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………..……iv Introduction: The Novel Form………………………………………….………1 Virginia Woolf: The Luminous Halo and Semi-Transparent Envelope………30 John Banville: Speaking the Language of This Wild Country………….……105 The Changing Novel Form: Virginia Woolf and John Banville…….……….178 Conclusion: Looking Towards a New Novel………………………….……..250 Works Cited……………………………………………………………….….255 iii Abstract This thesis will examine Virginia Woolf’s and John Banville’s obsession with art and formal experimentation, and how they define the relationship between the artistic imagination and reality to discuss the problem of representation in art in terms of the changing novel form. By looking at the changing form of the novel through the study of both writers’ artistic methods, I seek to establish an artistic genealogy between Woolf and Banville by reading Banville’s work in the context of, and as a counterpoint to, Woolf’s. I argue that there is narrative and artistic continuity between the ideas and work of both writers which demonstrate how the novel has developed since its beginnings in the eighteenth century. I posit that the discussion of art through art as demonstrated in these writers’ texts problematize the act of writing, which continues to be the central concern of the contemporary critical novel iv List of Abbreviations A John Banville, Athena BA Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts BE John Banville, The Book of Evidence BW John Banville, Birchwood CDB Virginia Woolf, The Captain’s Death Bed and Other Essays CRI Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader Vol.I CRII Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader Vol.II G John Banville, Ghosts GR Virginia Woolf, Granite and Rainbow: Essays by Virginia Woolf MB Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being MD Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway RO Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own S John Banville, The Sea TL Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse WD Virginia, Woolf, A Writer’s Diary Lim 1 Introduction: The Novel Form The poet being an imitator, just like the painter or other maker of likenesses, must necessarily in all instances represent things in one or other of three aspects, either as they were or are, or as they are said or thought to be or to have been, or as they ought to be. All this he does in language, with an admixture, it may be, of strange words and metaphors, as also of the various modified forms of words, since the use of these is conceded in poetry. Aristotle, Poetics1 The writing of this thesis was galvanised by a response given by John Banville during an interview with Hugh Haughton and Bryan Radley on June 23, 2011 during the Samuel Beckett: Out of the Archive Conference and Festival at the University of York. An excerpt of the exchange runs thus: Q5: You used the phrase, “delighted us enough,” which made me think of Austen. I wonder if you could say anything about the influence of women writers on your work. JB: That’s the high point of Austen for me. It goes downhill after that. I can’t say really. I don’t think, for instance, that Virginia Woolf is … Oh God, I won’t say anything about Virginia Woolf. I don’t distinguish between women writers and men writers, I really don’t. (868) My curiosity was piqued by Banville’s truncated comment on Virginia Woolf, by the unsaid. What I mean by this is not the similarities or differences between male 1 From Western Philosophy: An Anthology. Taken from Poetics [Peri Poetiks, c.325 BC], extracts from chapters 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 25 in The Works of Aristotle, Trans. I. Bywater, Ed. W. D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924. Lim 2 and female writers but what Banville felt he could not or did not want to say about Woolf. Moreover, it is interesting that of the women writers Banville could have named, he thought of Woolf. The intrigue contained in that unfinished sentence fuelled my desire to ‘complete’ that utterance on his behalf, to fill in the gaps. How did Woolf and Banville write their novels? Can I perhaps trace not a direct influence from Woolf to Banville but certain developments in theme or formal aspects of writing? Are there strands of thought common to both? Is there some insight I could glean from looking at both writers’ processes of writing? John Banville has been variously compared to and associated with writers from various ‘traditions’, for example, Irish writers like W. B. Yeats; postmodern writers like Vladimir Nabokov; Samuel Beckett who falls into both categories; and Henry James, a writer Banville himself claims as an influence. But there has not been any sustained study that considers the possibility of Banville’s and Woolf’s writing as having anything to do with each other. This is surprising considering both writers’ obsession with art and formal experimentation, and the relationship between the artistic imagination and reality, and I believe that a joint analysis of their work will yield fruitful discussion, adding to the conversation surrounding the novel and its changes in form. Although it is probable that any two writers could be lumped together in a study concerning literary art, I believe that examining the novels of Woolf and Banville in a sustained study can yield insights into the artistic process and the difficulties writers face when they negotiate the tricky terrain of the relationship between art and life.2 Both Woolf and Banville engage with the problem of representation in art but deal with it using differing methods, and I believe that these different approaches 2 In this thesis, the terms life, world, reality, experience, truth, the infinite and the real will be used interchangeably to refer to external reality as distinguished from the ‘reality’ of the work of art. Lim 3 showcase the distinction between modernist and contemporary writing, reflecting certain dominant traits of each milieu’s artistic and cultural production. By looking at the changing form of the novel through the study of both writers’ texts, I seek to establish an artistic genealogy between Woolf and Banville by reading Banville’s work in the context of, and as a counterpoint to, Woolf’s. I argue that there is narrative and artistic continuity between the ideas and work of both writers—seen, for example, in the increasing level of complexity of form—which demonstrate how the novel has developed since its beginnings. Art and Life Discourses of and around art have taken many forms and assumed many positions since critics started theorising and discussing the subject but one thing remains clear: any consideration of art has to deal with its dogged companion which has been called, in various contexts, life, experience, the world, truth and/or reality. And central to this argument about art and the world is the artist who is the primary agent in this tenuous contract.3 The formulation of art as imitation or mimesis was first put forward by Plato when he considered the nature and desirability of art in his ideal state in Republic (380 BC). Arguing for the exclusion of the artist in the ideal state because he is only a “manufacturer of images and is very far removed from the truth,” Socrates explains his position by reminding Glaucon that the artist is an imitator because he only represents things as they appear not as they are, that is, the painter only portrays 3 This assertion is not an attempt to rescue the author from obscurity or to make a case for the reading of authorial intention in a text.