“A Curious Pattern Like a Tree:” Edenic Death and Life in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway
This paper charts Virginia Woolf’s use of arboreal imagery drawn from Dante and the Bible in Mrs Dalloway to argue that she employs and subverts traditional Christian symbolism to create a uniquely modern conception of interconnected immortal life. Guided by the images of the Edenic and infernal tre...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins University Press
2022
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| In: |
Christianity & literature
Year: 2022, Volume: 71, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-20 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Woolf, Virginia 1882-1941, Mrs. Dalloway
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history NBQ Eschatology |
| Further subjects: | B
Mrs Dalloway
B Virginia Woolf B Eden B Ecology B Dante |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This paper charts Virginia Woolf’s use of arboreal imagery drawn from Dante and the Bible in Mrs Dalloway to argue that she employs and subverts traditional Christian symbolism to create a uniquely modern conception of interconnected immortal life. Guided by the images of the Edenic and infernal trees that pervade this novel, we can more fully grasp Woolf’s roots in religious tradition that branch into an utterly transformed vision of life and death. I argue that Woolf’s treatment of Christianity sheds a key light on secular re-conceptions of eschatology in the wake of modern(ist) social and psychological trauma. |
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| ISSN: | 2056-5666 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christianity & literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/chy.2022.0000 |