Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway may be dismissed as fiction, and fiction consequently is dismissed as fantasy. However, the novel enables readers to practice an intellectual exercise of meta-awareness that extends beyond the pages and onto real world phenomena. Under a cognitive neuroscience perspective, Mrs. Dalloway is a literary masterpiece due to its hyper- realistic execution of the intimacies of life. Through the narrative style of free-indirect discourse, Woolf illustrates what occurs in the minds of characters as they develop their own perceptions of reality and identity, exposes the fear and inadequacies of mankind’s distress in times of chaos and disorder through the characters, and attempts to tackle themes of spirituality and cosmic transcendence when encountering death. Although these themes originate from analyzing the behavior of characters in the novel, this thesis serves as a foundation of cognitive neuroscience not exclusively to provide another perspective of the novel, but in order to argue and take into account that literature such as Mrs. Dalloway is evident in enriching our understanding of life.
","abstract_html":"<p>Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway may be dismissed as fiction, and fiction consequently is dismissed as fantasy. However, the novel enables readers to practice an intellectual exercise of meta-awareness that extends beyond the pages and onto real world phenomena. Under a cognitive neuroscience perspective, Mrs. Dalloway is a literary masterpiece due to its hyper- realistic execution of the intimacies of life. Through the narrative style of free-indirect discourse, Woolf illustrates what occurs in the minds of characters as they develop their own perceptions of reality and identity, exposes the fear and inadequacies of mankind’s distress in times of chaos and disorder through the characters, and attempts to tackle themes of spirituality and cosmic transcendence when encountering death. Although these themes originate from analyzing the behavior of characters in the novel, this thesis serves as a foundation of cognitive neuroscience not exclusively to provide another perspective of the novel, but in order to argue and take into account that literature such as Mrs. Dalloway is evident in enriching our understanding of life.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Venegas, Kristen"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Richard Ruppel","Justine Van Meter","Brian Glaser"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:38:31Z","subjects":["cognition","neuroscience","Bayesian","Theory of Mind","Cognitive Psychology","Cognitive Science","Literature in English, British Isles","Philosophy of Mind","Social Psychology","Social Psychology and Interaction","Theory and Philosophy"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/english_theses/67","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Richard Ruppel","Justine Van Meter","Brian Glaser"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Venegas, Kristen"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["cognition","neuroscience","Bayesian","Theory of Mind","Cognitive Psychology","Cognitive Science","Literature in English, British Isles","Philosophy of Mind","Social Psychology","Social Psychology and Interaction","Theory and Philosophy"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/english_theses/67"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway may be dismissed as fiction, and fiction consequently is dismissed as fantasy. However, the novel enables readers to practice an intellectual exercise of meta-awareness that extends beyond the pages and onto real world phenomena. Under a cognitive neuroscience perspective, Mrs. Dalloway is a literary masterpiece due to its hyper- realistic execution of the intimacies of life. Through the narrative style of free-indirect discourse, Woolf illustrates what occurs in the minds of characters as they develop their own perceptions of reality and identity, exposes the fear and inadequacies of mankind’s distress in times of chaos and disorder through the characters, and attempts to tackle themes of spirituality and cosmic transcendence when encountering death. Although these themes originate from analyzing the behavior of characters in the novel, this thesis serves as a foundation of cognitive neuroscience not exclusively to provide another perspective of the novel, but in order to argue and take into account that literature such as Mrs. Dalloway is evident in enriching our understanding of life.
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"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/english_theses/67"],"dc:source":["Venegas, Kristen. Mrs. Dalloway as a Window for Understanding Life. 2023. Chapman University, MA Thesis. Chapman University Digital Commons, https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000512"],"dc:subject":["cognition","neuroscience","Bayesian","Theory of Mind","Cognitive Psychology","Cognitive Science","Literature in English, British Isles","Philosophy of Mind","Social Psychology","Social Psychology and Interaction","Theory and Philosophy"],"dc:title":["Mrs. Dalloway as a Window for Understanding Life"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:38:31Z"}