Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Summer 8-15-2017 The olidS & the Shifting: Darwinian Time, Evolutionary Form and the Greek Ideal in the Early Works of Virginia Woolf Joseph Monroe Kreutziger Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Evolution Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kreutziger, Joseph Monroe, "The oS lid & the Shifting: Darwinian Time, Evolutionary Form and the Greek Ideal in the Early Works of Virginia Woolf" (2017). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1250. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1250 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of English & American Literature Dissertation Examination Committee: Vincent Sherry, Chair Steven Meyer Melanie Micir Robert Milder Zoe Stamatopoulou The Solid & the Shifting: Darwinian Time, Evolutionary Form and the Greek Ideal in the Early Works of Virginia Woolf by Joseph Kreutziger A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2017 St. Louis, Missouri © 2017, Joseph Kreutziger Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................................................................................................... IV ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ............................................................................................................VII CHAPTER ONE: AN OPENING .................................................................................................................. 2 EVOLUTIONARY FORM AND DARWINIAN ORIGINS IN VIRGINIA WOOLF ........................................................................ 2 1.1: THE SOLID AND THE SHIFTING.................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2: BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3: THE TEMPORAL BARRIER ........................................................................................................................................11 1.4: THE MYTH OF PROGRESS, THE MISS OF PROCESS ...............................................................................................15 1.5: THE CRITICISM ...........................................................................................................................................................18 1.6: THE CHAPTERS...........................................................................................................................................................22 1.7: RICOEUR’S TIME AND NARRATIVE: PREFIGURING WOOLF ...........................................................................28 1.8: RICOEUR’S FIGURATIONS: WOOLF’S “PRENARRATIVE” AS PREHISTORY .........................................................32 CHAPTER TWO ..........................................................................................................................................36 THE VOYAGE OUT AND NIGHT AND DAY: EARLY EVOLUTIONARY PLOTS AND NARRATIVE DESTINATIONS IN VIRGINIA WOOLF .....................................................................................................................................................................36 2.1: VOYAGING....................................................................................................................................................................36 2.2: RETURNS......................................................................................................................................................................38 2.3: MELYMBROSIA’S CAMBRIDGIAN EXPLOSION.........................................................................................................40 2.4: DESCENT AS DISAPPEARANCE, UNSELFCONSCIOUSNESS AS AWARENESS ......................................................43 2.5: EVOLUTION OF ROMANCE ........................................................................................................................................45 2.6: NIGHT AND DAY’S VISIONARY BIOLOGY ................................................................................................................48 2.7: NIGHT AND DAY’S RESOLUTION AT KEW..............................................................................................................52 CHAPTER THREE ......................................................................................................................................57 TALES OF THE SNAIL: NATURALIST PERSPECTIVE AND EVOLUTIONARY FORM IN “KEW GARDENS” AND “THE MARK ON THE WALL”.............................................................................................................................................................57 3.1: WOOLF’S NATURALIST VIEW OF KEW...................................................................................................................57 3.2: THE KEW GARDENS OF NATURAL HISTORY .........................................................................................................61 3.3: IMPERSONALITY OF THE NATURALIST...................................................................................................................64 3.4: TALE OF THE SNAIL ...................................................................................................................................................69 3.5: TALES OF THE SNAIL..................................................................................................................................................80 3.6: FROM EVOLUTIONS TO INVOLUTIONS OF TIME AND NARRATIVE ......................................................................84 3.7: THE TREE OF LIFE ....................................................................................................................................................90 3.8: TRANSITIONS—THE SOLIDITY OF TREES: NARRATIVE CONTINUITY AND INTERRUPTION .......................94 CHAPTER FOUR ......................................................................................................................................104 PREFIGURING THE PAST BEFORE “READING”: THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE ORIGINS OF EVOLUTIONARY FORM IN WOOLF’S NARRATIVE............................................................................................................104 4.1 INTRODUCTORY “READING” ........................................................................................................................................104 4.2 “READING” THE PAST..............................................................................................................................................107 4.3 “READING”: DAY TWO............................................................................................................................................110 4.4: THE INTERLUDE .....................................................................................................................................................111 4.5: LARVA GROOM AND LANTERN BEARER.............................................................................................................115 4.6: DARWIN AMONG THE MOTHS..............................................................................................................................119 4.7: LEPIDOPTERA WOOLFIANA ..................................................................................................................................124 4.8: RE-“READING”—THWARTED METAMORPHOSIS AND NARRATIVE RUPTURE..............................................132 4.9: TRANSITIONS— HANG THERE LIKE FRUIT, MY SOUL, TIL THE TREE DIE.......................................................135 ii 4.10: SOLID SHIFTINGS AND SHIFTING SOLIDS—EVOLUTIONARY PLATONISM AND AESTHETIC DARWINISM ..................................................................................................................................................................................................141 CHAPTER FIVE ........................................................................................................................................146 THE VICTORIAN INHERITANCE OF THE GREEK IDEAL IN EARLY WOOLF: DIALOGUE AND GENDER IN “PENTELICUS” AND “PHYLLIS & ROSAMOND”.................................................................................................................146 5.1: A GREEK OF HER OWN: ........................................................................................................................................146 5.2: CAMBRIDGE SYMPOSIUMS—THE EARLIEST FICTIONS....................................................................................149 5.3: A SYMPOSIUM OF HER OWN—CONVERSATIONS AND DIALOGUES ...............................................................157