Abstract/Description
In her essay, “Modern Fiction,” Virginia Woolf speaks of “an analogy between literature and process,” and urges a move away from what she calls materialist writing. However, what is noticeably left out of this discussion is the notion of the product. Woolf views the history of literature as one that is about process not necessarily progress: “we do not come to write better; all that we can be said to do is to keep moving, now a little in this direction, now in that.” Woolf views literature as not a progress to a product, but rather a process of changing convention, adapting literature, and trying what has not been done. Accordingly, in her novel Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf portrays a similar notion. In a story centered around a character who has been troubled with the same issues for thirty years, Woolf gives the character only one day. Not to find resolution, but to disrupt her own resolution as living as a product. Therefore, the focus on process in the novel and the dismissal of resolved product is reflective of the lack of story structure and clear resolution as experienced in everyday life.
Recommended Citation
Dwyer, Joe
(2024).
Product vs Process: In Life and Literature.
Undergraduate Review, 18, 192-197.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol18/iss1/21
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