MODERN FICTION - Virginia Woolf

 

Virginia Woolf one of the greatest English writers was born on 1882. She was a novelist, essayist and critic. She was a major 20^th century novelist and one of the main exponents of the Stream of Consciousness Technique. Some of her important works are “A Room of One’s Own”, “To the Lighthouse”, “The Waves” and much more.

“Modern Fiction”, one of her major critical essay was written in 1919 and was published in 1921. It was published in a series of short stories called “Monday or Tuesday”. This essay is a criticism of writers and literature from the previous generations. It also acts as a guide for writers of modern fiction.

According to Virginia Woolf the modern art is not in any way improved that the olden art. Even when there was not much tools the older generation authors, like Fielding and Jane Austen were far more superior to the modern writers. Their art had a strange sense of simplicity. She tells that in the modern day’s people even learnt about the motor car and its process but they have not learnt about the process involved in writing. Woolf calls the past authors as happy warriors. She further adds that few writers of the past inspire but few writers’ leads us in wrong path.

Woolf criticizes H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy. She says that these three authors failed to do what they should have done. She terms these three authors as materialists, because there were not bothered about the spirit but only of the outer appearance. They left the readers in disappointment. All the three authors were slave to the conventional ideas of fiction and because of that they didn’t attempted anything new or extraordinary in their work. Though H.G. Wells had a deadly alloy of genius and he made his work appear shipshape and substantial, he had missed the real face of life. Arnold Bennett, according to Woolf is the worst among the three. Even the critics get carried away by his well constructed appearance of the novel. His characters are not properly rounded off. These authors wrote of unimportant things and made the temporary things of life appear true and enduring.

Woolf wants the authors to know the reader’s demand. They should also analyze the worth of the novel. But Woolf tells that Bennett’s work is a confession of vagueness and the reality of life is not found in his work. The novel misses what the readers seek for. Their work doesn’t resemble the vision in their mind. Woolf feels that the writer is seemed to under the control of a tyrant. By tyrant Woolf, means the conventional ideas of a novel. In the name of giving a plot, comedy, tragedy and love, the work misses the originality and it look only fashionable. The pages of the work may be filled according to the conventional ideas but the reality will not be there.

                According to Virginia Woolf, a writer should write what he chose and not what he must. The work should be based on author’s own feelings and not on any conventional ideas. If the author chose to write what he feels, the work may not have a proper plot, tragedy or comedy. And it is how the reality of life too will be. Woolf tells that life is not like a gig lamps arranged properly but it is just a luminous halo. To capture this luminous halo the writer should have courage and sincerity and the proper stuff for fiction should also be there.

            Woolf praises the works of James Joyce. She argues that Joyce’s work come closer to life and hence it interests the reader a lot. His work doesn’t follow any convention and it records things as it comes. His work may seem disconnected and incoherent but that interests the reader a lot. She mentions two works of Joyce, “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and “Ulysses”. While Woolf describes few authors as materialistic she describes “James Joyce” as spiritualistic. Joyce capture the flickering of the inner most flame. He was courageous enough to describe the unplanned ideas. The cemetery scene described in “Ulysses” is a masterpiece. Few of Hardy’s and Conrad’s work failed because of the poverty of writer’s mind. Their creative power is curbed because they are forced to follow the conventional ideas. These works are self-centered and it doesn’t attempt anything extraordinary. Woolf finally tells that any method is right and every method is right, if it expresses the writer’s intention.

            Woolf further adds that a writer should be courageous enough to say that his interest is no more the same and the modernist writers should focus on psychology, which has been ignored so long. They should choose a different outline for this kind of work. Woolf tells that Russian work comes under this category and she gives a special attention to the work of Anton Chekov.  She mentions the story of Anton Chekov “The Witch and the other Stories”, in which Gusev was compared to a “carrot or radish”, a very unusual comparison. She tells that most of the English Fiction has Russian influence. The Russian novelist has human spirit within them and they write with heart and love towards them. In their work they express sympathy for the suffering for others and Endeavour to reach a worthy goal. Woolf further tells that Russian work constitute a saintliness and English wok are with irreligious trivialities. The Russian work doesn’t lead to any proper conclusion but Woolf argues that it is the reality of life, because life is also full of hopeless interrogation. Russian work seem to be gloomy whereas the English Work is a mixture of humour, comedy, intellect and so on.

            Woolf tells that on judging the works of Russian novelist and the English novelist it can be said that both the forms are correct because art always have infinite possibilities. Just like the horizon has no limit, art too has no limit. Woolf concludes the essay by telling that no method is forbidden and the only thing is a good work should avoid falsity and pretence. Thus Woolf puts forth her critical assessment of the modern day fiction in her essay.

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