Introduction
This work was originally written under the supervision of prof. dr. hab. Leszek
S. Kolek in the English Philology Institute of UMCS as a doctoral dissertation. It was
then titled “Philosophy and Narrative: The Novels of Virginia Woolf.” In preparing the
work for publication I have decided to change the title, fearing that it might mislead the
reader into believing that the work is a study of Virginia Woolf’s fiction, whereas in fact
it is a methodological study. This focus of the book appears to be more adequately
expressed in the new title “Philosophy in Fiction.”
The primary aim of this work is to present and test a method of reconstructing
the philosophy present in narrative literature. The method might help facilitate an
objective and comprehensive reading of narrative texts, as well as contribute to the
defence of the scholarly character of those literary studies which venture beyond purely
formal descriptions.
The dissertation consists of an introduction, two parts, and a conclusion. The first
part presents a theory of the philosophical analysis of narrative texts;1 the second
contains three analyses of Virginia Woolf’s novels, The Years (1937), Jacob’s Room
(1922) and Between the Acts (1941), which illustrate both the invariable narrative
structure and the three major narrative variants – realist, modernist and postmodernist –
all examined in terms of their philosophical content. To keep the dissertation within
reasonable limits I have decided to exclude particular examples from the first,
theoretical, part, and to omit from the second, practical, part full-length analyses of
Virginia Woolf’s other novels, enclosing merely their brief presentations in so far as
these shed light on additional aspects of the relationship between narrative and
philosophy. For detailed presentation I have selected three novels which are very
original, and yet relatively neglected by critics, even though I realize that they are not
the purest in terms of the literary convention they are taken to represent (Night and Day,
To the Lighthouse and Orlando might in this respect serve as better examples of
realism, modernism and postmodernism, respectively). Nor do they reflect Woolf’s
1
Fragments of the theoretical part of this dissertation have already been published or publicly presented
(now in print): Teske, Joanna (Klara). “The Novel: A Store of Ideas vs. a Mode of Cognition.” PASE Papers
in Literature, Language and Culture. Lublin, 1998. 377-386.
---. “Treść formy, czyli o literaturze i o tym jak forma uwikłana jest w wymianę poglądów między
autorem a czytelnikiem.” Aspekty filozoficzno-prozatorskie. 9-16. (2004-5): 30-9.
---. “The Philosophical Potential of Narrative Texts.” 14th PASE Conference, Łódź 4-7 April, 2005.
Introduction
6
literary evolution (The Years is Woolf’s last novel but one, but in this dissertation
it must be studied first, since the literary convention it is taken to represent is
historically older than modernism or postmodernism); however, it is not the purpose of
this dissertation either to reconstruct Woolf’s philosophy or trace her literary evolution.
The reason this study in the philosophical interpretation of narrative works is
illustrated with the novels of Virginia Woolf, when in principle it can be illustrated with
any narrative, any English novel, is, apart from my personal preference (any choice in
this situation is, out of necessity, arbitrary), the unusual versatility of Woolf’s literary
method and originality of her philosophical thought – under these circumstances
the study of her fiction should be particularly illuminating.
I have taken great care to do justice to the critics who for decades have been
examining Virginia Woolf’s novelistic output, above all with reference to the formal
analysis of the narrative techniques and their interpretation. Sometimes, however,
respecting the division of the novel’s narrative spheres of dominance (of the characters,
narrator and implied author) I could not take advantage of critical works of less
systematic approach.
The published version of my dissertation is complemented by two essays:
“The Three Stages in the History of the Novel – Realism, Modernism and
Postmodernism: A Reflection of the Evolution of Reality in Karl Popper’s Model of the
Three Worlds” and “Sanity, Neurosis and Psychosis in the Modern History of the
English Narrative.” I originally presented them at the 16th PASE Conference (Szczyrk,
19-21. 04. 2007) and “The Cultural Representations of Psychiatry and Mental Illness”
conference (Piotrków Trybunalski, 18-19. 05. 2007) respectively. I would like to
express here my sincere gratitude for the kind permission of the editors of the
conference proceedings to republish them here. The papers develop two hypotheses
briefly discussed in my dissertation (section 3.4) concerning the analogy between the
three literary conventions (realism, modernism and postmodernism) and, on the one
hand, Popper’s Worlds (the first essay) and, on the other hand, the three states of the
human mind (the second), with reference to the history of the English novel. Some
paragraphs from section 3.4 are repeated in the essays enclosed in the appendix, for the
sake of their clarity and self-contained character.
I would also like to take this opportunity to reveal two general methodological
principles of my analysis. Firstly, I believe that the reconstruction of the philosophical
content of narrative works should not use as evidence either biographical materials
or critical works by the author. The author who articulates his/her view of reality
Introduction
7
in narrative fiction does not, as a rule, expect the reader to be well acquainted with
the author’s biography or beliefs expressed elsewhere – the text of the narrative should,
for the sake of such analysis, be treated as self-contained and self-sufficient. Secondly,
I will employ the criterion of internal cohesion of the text devised by St Augustine and
discussed by Umberto Eco in his lecture on overinterpretation: “any interpretation given of
a certain portion of a text can be accepted if it is confirmed by, and must be rejected if it
is challenged by, another portion of the same text” (Eco, “Overinterpreting Texts” 65).
I should like to explain at this point why I have decided to exclude from my
discussion deconstructionist authors (such as Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man or their
followers), even though they have been closely concerned with the relationship between
philosophy, literature and literary theory. The main reason is that deconstructionists
have deliberately neglected the distinction between the three disciplines, arguing that
they all use the same language with its figurative and rhetorical mode. My aim being the
construction of a method of reading the philosophical ideas inherent in narrative texts,
I have not found this approach helpful. Furthermore, deconstructionists have
relinquished the basic assumptions of modern (rational-empiricist) science such as the
concept of truth, the search for objective, free-of-ideology knowledge and the distinction
between the subject and object of research. Although I appreciate the value of the
deconstructionist method of reading, intent as it is on finding the text’s multiplicity of
meaning, contradictions and paradoxes, I am unwilling to accept their view of the
humanities, and this is the second reason why I could not take advantage of their works.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Leszek S. Kolek for
agreeing to assist me in my struggle with Virginia Woolf, for the freedom he gave me to
explore the common realm of literature and philosophy, for the attention with which he
critically examined the results of my exploration, and for the many years of his generous
help. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Aleskandra Kędzierska
and Professor Jacek Wiśniewski, who reviewed this dissertation, for their valuable
comments. For their support and help, I would like to thank my colleagues from the
English Department of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and above all, the
head of the Department, Professor Anna Malicka-Kleparska. Last but not least, I would
like to thank the staff of the English Department Library at KUL and the British Council
Library, the students who attended my course on English Literature (From Modernism
to Contemporary Fiction), my friends and family. I would like to dedicate this book to
my parents, Elżbieta and Andrzej Teske.