The concept of time
in Modern Literature
Virginia Woolf and James Joyce
Reason for choosing the present path
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Time : very important theme in
literature;
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Importance of the time in Virginia Woolf
and James Joyce’s productions.
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These ways of handling time are very
similar  possible connection between
James Joyce and Virginia Woolf way of
writing.
Problem posed and objective
PROBLEM
 Why time is so important during the Modern
Age?
OBJECTIVES
 To analyze the concept of time during the
Modern Age
 To comprehend the importance of time in the
Modern Age
Context
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End of XIX century  reaction
against the self-satisfying morality
and rigid orthodox respectability of
the age The Anti-Victorian
Reaction
New literary movements 
“Aesthetic Movement” its founder
and theorist was Walter Pater .
Movement objective: to move art
away from its traditional role as a
teacher and moral guide  art for
art’s sake.
Walter Pater
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In Pater’s Studies In The History Of The
Renaissance(1873) time is like a river flowing
towards death  no way of seizing its reality
 to stop time through art and through the
intensity of the ecstatic moment.
the full comprehension of life and destiny, time
and art  the only kind of success worth
pursuing in life.
“To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame,
to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life”
(W.Pater) the real purpose of life.
Walter Pater (1839-1894)
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Artists express themselves freely  not slaves
of fixed moral and ethical conventions.
Henri Bergson
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Bergson’s main critique of the mechanistic view:
“It was the analysis of the notion of time, as that
enters into mechanics and physics, which
overturned all my ideas. I saw, to my great
astonishment, that scientific time does
not endure. This led me to change my point of
view completely” (Encyc. Brit. article on Bergson)
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Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate
Data of Consciousness (1889)  differences
between lived time ‘real duration’ (durée réelle) –
and the mechanistic time of science.
Time is perceived as a succession of separate
constructs (just like seeing a film)  succession
of moments.
Henri Bergson
(1859-1941)
James Joyce’s concept of time
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No plot,
No story,
No punctuation, no syntax
Past, present and future are
blended in a single time  psyche
time
Facts are condensed in very few
hours  interior time is more
important than the real time
 stream of consciousness
 narrative device to depict the
different thoughts and feelings
passing through the mind.
James Joyce’s intention: to
report characters’ thoughts
An extract from James Joyce’s
Ulysses
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Past: […] the sun shines for you he
said the day we were lying among
the rhododendrons on Howth head
in the grey tweed suit and his straw
hat the day I got him to propose to
me yes […]
Present: what an unearthly hour I
suppose theyre just getting up in
China now combing out their pigtails
for the day well soon have the nuns
ringing the angelus […]
Future: to put about the place in
case he brings him home tomorrow
today I mean no no Fridays an
unlucky day […] whatll I wear shall I
wear a white rose or those fairy
cakes in Liptons […]
Ulysses, James Joyce
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The disorder of the mind is
represented by different features:
no organization into paragraphs,
no punctuation,
coordination is predominant.
Fusion between different times
like past, present and future and
between different locations 
Associations in Molly’s mind.
 the real voyage the one of the
mind.
Virginia Woolf’s concept of time
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In Virginia Woolf’s literature, the mind has a
very important role  it has different
processes.
“Her endless search for the novel-form which
would substitute the single time unit of the
fleeting instant for the restful time sequence of
days, months and years” (Mrs. Dalloway)
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Two techiques:
Fixed subject in space and its consciousness
moves in time (time-montage)
Fixed time and its spatial element changes
(space-montage)
Use of the “stream of consciousness” 
perfect balance between her characters’ inner
speculations and the realism of the situations.
An extract from Virginia Woolf’s
Monday or Tuesday
Lazy and indifferent, shaking
space easily from his wings,
knowing his way, the heron
passes over the church beneath
the sky. White and distant,
absorbed in itself, endlessly the
sky covers and uncovers, moves
and remains. A lake? Blot the
shores of it out! A mountain? Oh,
perfect—the sun gold on its
slopes. Down that falls. Ferns
then, or white feathers, for ever
and ever
Monday or Tuesday, Virginia Woolf
High density of contrasting verbs
 different actions take place at
the same time time of psyche
Pressing rhythm  “time flows like
a river”.
“for ever and ever”  a religious
concept of time  belief in
something after death.
Gustav Klimt’s concept of time
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Simbolism and Art Noveau
The Kiss, Gustav Klimt
The moment before the kiss
 Klimt stops time and
focalizes on a particular
moment.
Walter Pater’s time  art is
the only way of stopping
time through the intensity of
the aesthatic moment.
Work by
Amedeo Noacco