The nightingale sings anew: The appropriation of antiquity in Virginia Woolf's "The Waves"

This thesis considers the impact of classical antiquity on the literary aesthetic of Virginia Woolf by focusing on the educational and theoretical assumptions that allowed Woolf to create her most experimental work, The Waves. Inspired by her brother Thoby Stephen and her tutor Janet Case, Woolf enjoyed a very strong and fertile relationship with the writers of antiquity, and she continued to return to them throughout her life for both conceptual and structural models. In her essays on the Greeks in particular, Woolf praises the ancients for achieving those things that she so longs to see accomplished in the works of the Moderns, especially their true representation of character and their exploration of the psychological. Her appropriation of Greek drama, Greek and Latin philosophy, and Latin neoteric poetry in The Waves, however, suggests more than mere appreciation. Woolf also clearly valued them as instruments for realizing her own aesthetic vision.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Hoff, Neta Luree

Contributors dc:contributor

• Beth Rosenberg

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1427

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2426