A01=Lisa Coughlin McGarry
Author_Lisa Coughlin McGarry
Category=DSBH
Category=DSK
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eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_non-fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9780761837503
- Weight: 290g
- Dimensions: 153 x 231mm
- Publication Date: 15 May 2007
- Publisher: University Press of America
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This work explores a central question of the human condition: how do we find meaning in human experience? Virginia Woolf's novels give us insight into the Modernist's response, one that reacts to the devastation of war, advances in the sciences, and a deeper understanding of human consciousness. Orts, Scraps, and Fragments contends that the social constructs of religion, marriage, and communication fail to provide the meaning and interpersonal connection that society invests in them. Instead, Woolf's characters struggle within these constructs and ultimately find themselves disillusioned, unfulfilled, and isolated. Through a close reading, Dr. McGarry analyzes the ways in which characters, such as Clarissa Dalloway, Mrs. Ramsay, Giles and Isa Oliver, and Jacob Flanders, attempt to work through the realization that meaning is elusive. However, Woolf's few artistic characters have the ability to transcend this darkness. Through their struggle for creative expression, they glimpse, if only briefly, a larger, unifying meaning. For Lily Briscoe, Miss LaTrobe, and Bernard this momentary hint of universal meaning provides sufficient motivation to continue the artistic process and life itself. For Woolf art, not imposed social constructs, sustains life.
Lisa Coughlin McGarry is Assistant Professor of English, specializing in modern British literature, and director of the writing program at Gwynedd-Mercy College in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, where she is an active member of the college community.
