“Scraps, orts, and fragments”
Shakespeare is ubiquitous in Virginia Woolf’s works and there is hardly a piece of writing in which the playwright’s name is not mentioned. Along with other authors of the past, Shakespeare always represented an ideal benchmark for Woolf’s literary output, providing her with the necessary drive t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
2017-09-01
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| Series: | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie Occidentale |
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| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-6 |
| _version_ | 1797645787361968128 |
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| author | Ragni, Cristiano |
| author_facet | Ragni, Cristiano |
| author_sort | Ragni, Cristiano |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Shakespeare is ubiquitous in Virginia Woolf’s works and there is hardly a piece of writing in which the playwright’s name is not mentioned. Along with other authors of the past, Shakespeare always represented an ideal benchmark for Woolf’s literary output, providing her with the necessary drive to keep on “searching”. This meant experimenting with new forms of writing that, in her personal experience, meant finding new reasons to keep on living. A lifelong search, this usually became more intense before and after the repeated periods of crisis that Woolf had to face: not only on a personal level, but also on a more general one, because of the historical crises her generation had to live through. It was in those moments that Woolf mostly turned to her deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s work. I will try to show how Shakespeare’s ‘presence’ is particularly crucial in Between the Acts, the novel she wrote at the outbreak of World War II. Woolf tried to reply to the general crisis provoked by the new conflict with a work that consciously evoked the historical-literary past of Great Britain and into which multiple references to the Bard’s oeuvre are weaved. Shakespearean echoes are “scraps, orts”, testifying to Woolf’s extreme attempt to contain the desegregating violence of the war. They represented, in other words, what kept – and still keeps – a community together: its history and culture.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T14:52:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7fb9545de5644f5c835b94346758c6e5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2499-1562 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T14:52:54Z |
| publishDate | 2017-09-01 |
| publisher | Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie Occidentale |
| spelling | doaj.art-7fb9545de5644f5c835b94346758c6e52023-10-30T08:32:15ZdeuFondazione Università Ca’ FoscariAnnali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie Occidentale2499-15622017-09-0151110.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-6journal_article_1089“Scraps, orts, and fragments”Ragni, Cristiano 0Università degli Studi di Perugia, Italia Shakespeare is ubiquitous in Virginia Woolf’s works and there is hardly a piece of writing in which the playwright’s name is not mentioned. Along with other authors of the past, Shakespeare always represented an ideal benchmark for Woolf’s literary output, providing her with the necessary drive to keep on “searching”. This meant experimenting with new forms of writing that, in her personal experience, meant finding new reasons to keep on living. A lifelong search, this usually became more intense before and after the repeated periods of crisis that Woolf had to face: not only on a personal level, but also on a more general one, because of the historical crises her generation had to live through. It was in those moments that Woolf mostly turned to her deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s work. I will try to show how Shakespeare’s ‘presence’ is particularly crucial in Between the Acts, the novel she wrote at the outbreak of World War II. Woolf tried to reply to the general crisis provoked by the new conflict with a work that consciously evoked the historical-literary past of Great Britain and into which multiple references to the Bard’s oeuvre are weaved. Shakespearean echoes are “scraps, orts”, testifying to Woolf’s extreme attempt to contain the desegregating violence of the war. They represented, in other words, what kept – and still keeps – a community together: its history and culture. http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-6Between the Acts. Shakespeare. Virginia Woolf. World War II |
| spellingShingle | Ragni, Cristiano “Scraps, orts, and fragments” Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie Occidentale Between the Acts. Shakespeare. Virginia Woolf. World War II |
| title | “Scraps, orts, and fragments” |
| title_full | “Scraps, orts, and fragments” |
| title_fullStr | “Scraps, orts, and fragments” |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Scraps, orts, and fragments” |
| title_short | “Scraps, orts, and fragments” |
| title_sort | scraps orts and fragments |
| topic | Between the Acts. Shakespeare. Virginia Woolf. World War II |
| url | http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-1562/AnnOc-51-17-6 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ragnicristiano scrapsortsandfragments |