Abstract

Chained Thoughts Broken by Chains of Thought

An Analysis of the Narrative Style Used in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own

The purpose of this essay is to analyse the narrative style used in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own in order to show in which ways it supports and reinforces the author’s arguments in her quest for a more equal society. One of the most prominent stylistic means applied by Woolf is her ‘train of thought’, linking one reflection to another like wagons in a railway convoy or like loops in a chain (therefore also sometimes referred to as ‘chain of thought’ in dictionaries). By examining how different rhetorical devices are applied within this train or chain of thought and in which ways these strategies are linked to the main elements of persuasion (ethos, pathos and logos) in Aristotelian Rhetoric, I have found that one of Woolf’s central themes - the resentment against confinement and the advocacy of androgyny or mixed-gendered thinking - is mirrored in her style. It reflects the author’s call to resist society’s restrictions by its unrestricted combination of different rhetorical strategies; this mixture of stylistic, partly gender-neutral devices helps her to create a common ground where she can reach and appeal to both genders in a very effective and innovative way, thus enabling her chain of thoughts to break some of our chained thoughts.

Ellen Johansson

Engelska C