竹林公社

 

我必须要再次叙述和他的最后一次见面。我在另一次回忆里提到了的。是的，他是我的表弟，他去到外国之前的每一个星期六，我们都厮磨在一起的。我回忆里写的是：
当他的妈妈和我的妈妈在电视机前坐下， 我们便跑到我的或他的房间里，紧紧握着彼此的手，飞快地讲起话来。
现在我必须说，这不是真的。我必须诚实的回忆，摊开信纸，是的，大声阅读。

很久以前的那天，我被赶到了楼梯间，那天不冷，也没有下雨，所有的气氛都是我想要的记忆，天上没有坑坑洼洼的月亮，树没有动，猫都不见。我从一楼走到地下室，从地下室游荡到一楼。妈妈和一个衣衫肮脏的妇女点起了厨房的灯，头对头热烈的讨论着什么。她们不要我偷听。

“在灯红酒绿里嗅着各色各样的香水味。”他念一句对白，站在楼梯口，神气十足。
我倚靠在地下室发霉的门上，我解下外衣铺到台阶，坐了下来。那是我第一次见到我的表弟。他一动不动站了很久，我想我没有回头抬头或者仰起头。在另一次回忆里我说的，我自始都是他最亲爱的姐姐，那不是真的。第一次见到他我就害怕了的。
我想起来了，我坐在潮湿的台阶上，等待他过来，或者他说一句什么，我等的几乎要睡着。终于他说话了，声音还是那么神气：“新鲜空气对您的健康是有好处的。”他突然走来牵起我的手。

很久以前的那天我还是个小学生，我马上绯红了面颊，半臂酥麻的随他飞跑起来。我们跑向街口的小卖店，我忘记拿起我的外衣。
他的头发柔软，他越过一个水坑就停了下来，开始慢慢的走，我小心的回了一下头，看到我家厨房，再走两步，看不到我家厨房。他牵我的手去摸他头发的时候，我想到家里那个肮脏的妇女那一件肮脏的衣裳。我手指弯起来，握了一掌他的头发。全城的电视机响亮，人们做晚饭。

“你闻它不同的部位，就可以闻到不同食物的味道。”

“你知道我必须来看望你了。”他在柜台后面缩了缩，我就可以稍微舒服一点的弓身坐下，“我们相信，新鲜空气对我们的健康是有好处的。”我拣起一包话梅，咽下口水，拣起一包棉花糖，又放下，一面听他絮絮的说话。

你总是坐在潮湿的台阶上，是的，我知道，那时候我在哪里你不必过问。你自己一个人的时候就直接坐下，都不垫外衣的，你看你外衣可以穿几个月都不洗。是的，姐姐，我喜欢你你总是那么干净的。为了我，你把最心爱的外衣铺到潮湿的台阶上，我表面上不说，我心里是温暖极了的。
或者厨房里的妇女没有驱赶你，你的妈妈也没有，你总是自觉自愿的到楼梯间坐下。“你这样的小学生我见多了！”
他冷冷的抛下这句话，似乎很累的不再开口。我就哭了起来，我现在也不知道，这么多年我想了很多遍，我就是不明白，我是因为他最后一句话而哭泣，或者是因为他不再说话。我终于撕开那包话梅，呜咽着吃起来。
 
他说我让他想起他的妈妈。他说的时候很激动的捧着我的脸。你知道很久以前我还是个小学生，我只敢在楼梯间里游荡而已，他这样说，我是不会感谢的。

你要睡着的时候，我的手悬在了半空，我觉得那样悬着的手，很美。好象我牵你的手到我头发里，其实我也是知道你不是我的妈妈。你为什么随了我越过那个水坑，而不是轻轻绕开。很多时候答案就只有我能告诉你，我最亲爱的姐姐。可是我就要走了。
我今天本来的打算是带你去洗衣店的，我本来没想到小卖店来，可是你在台阶上坐下我就改了主意。有时候我跟随你在花坛里跑来跑去，你一定没发现吧，有时候我往你的外衣上扔了泥巴，你在树的下面，慌忙的做一份算术题。你是我的妈妈，树叶就落三片。我总被自己的小小玩笑逗的忍不住，虎头蛇尾的结束每一次跟踪。

你为什么晚上不到楼梯间的外面看看呢，那些霉烂的边边角角啊，我真的羡慕像你这样不做噩梦的人，姐姐。你哭了是因为我要求你哭泣，我还是告诉你吧。

我明天就去外国了。

小卖店是我可以随便进出的地方，当然我已经和你说过了的，洗衣店也是。这个城还是有几个这样的地方，外国也会有的吧。其实那个花坛很无趣的你为什么总在那里做算术题？
昨天我跟踪你的时候，我是埋在树上了的。我吃一片树叶是凌晨四点，转头看到三五个小孩也在别的树杈上大吃大嚼的，发现被我看到，他们就互相扭打起来。唉，你的算术题写的工整极了。我去外国你不知道我是多么的惋惜。说到这里我还是承认吧，是的，我最关心的是你的健康。

我只能记得这些了。那个肮脏衣裳的妇女之后住在了我家的厨房，妈妈一看到她就摔摔打打，很气愤的样子，她们有时候交谈也不再驱赶我。那件铺在台阶上的外衣不知道被谁拣去了哪里。第二天我到小卖店给老板一包话梅的钱。老板左右看着，飞快的抢过那些钱，再不正眼瞧我。

很快他们就说：“长成大姑娘了。”并且坚持用这句话和我打招呼，所以我和表弟一定说了很多话，我们并且见过很多次，或者我可以想起来，很久以前我是捉到一个跟踪我的人，我把手伸到他头发里握的紧。
当然，我要求他哭泣的时候他就哭了。我很神气的捉着他在城里展览。外国，你明白吗？

……他站起来脱下晨衣，摘下无檐便帽，甩掉拖鞋，又脱下亚麻布裤子和衬衣。他把脑袋摘下，像摘下假发一样；把锁骨摘下，像摘下肩章一样；把胸腔摘下，像摘下锁子甲一样。他脱下屁股和大腿，摘下胳膊，像摘下铁手套，把它们扔到角落里。他身上剩下的部分渐渐溶解，在空气中不着颜色。
　　起初辛辛那图斯沉浸于凉爽之中，后来完全浸在他秘密的媒体中，他开始自由地、幸福地……
　　铁栓咣当一响，辛辛那图斯马上把摘下的部分又生长出来，包括那顶无檐便帽。
　　罗典看守带来十几个黄色杏子，装在四周用葡萄树叶装饰的圆形篮子里。
　　这是狱长妻子的礼物。
　　辛辛那图斯，你的非法行为已使你精神振作。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——《斩首的邀请》

水泥台太高  我后退一步,又一步
对某一场热情洋溢  视若无睹
想象的三天  想象的四天
睡了的啊  美  人

南  南  北是被奚落后的  奇迹吗
是
吻吗
自己从对面走来
香香毛巾忍受侮辱
不逃 
你还在等什么?

饿的时候  我看到这只动物对我关闭了食欲
我从舞场  那妇人大声辱骂着朋友
我穿过  动物的液体与我无关的流淌他方
想停止耳朵  不能停止耳朵

亲爱的你不可以嫌弃我  我的黑睡衣的好姑娘
亲爱的  别

我们有必要共同回忆那些凡人吗  装做乐此不疲的寒暄
再寒暄  你
看重那男人脸色吗

我在每一个房间狼狈的驱赶烟草味道  
你逼我的  狼狈的驱赶黄月亮白  月亮

亲爱的你逼我  要深情抚摩肮脏的塑料纸
要为我打通一条墙
要推搡我到腐臭的旧屋角落  要揉脏我的头发
要揉脏我的头发直到我  涕泪横流

亲爱的你对我扬起的脸是骄傲的
亲爱的你很骄傲她是在你的院子吊死自己的

我反身一直  我遮掩衣裳的污渍和我的鼓鼓肚皮
佯装无事
白昼开始阴云
我开始从容  展示我的欲望给我看

我坐下  我明白
这不是他的园子了
睡觉美人儿啊
叫你醒的必须是我啊
睡觉美人儿啊
我们亲爱的
注定被唤醒的
正当妙龄的  美丽的白皙的
期待爱情的注定幸福的  睡觉美人儿啊

黑睡衣的好姑娘
让我们干杯吧
洒果汁在我身上吧
冰块从脖颈  从胸滑下  不洁的
咸

下雨的时候  小鸭子都躲到哪里去了呢

ansi1933 发表于 >2004-8-4 23:22:15

　　这是一本应该列入我“钟爱”的行列的书。库切《彼得堡的大师》。当我看到绿色背景下柔软人物的封面时，我并未料到会有这样的相遇，这不仅是一次幻想的祝福，一次轻松的偏离和逃逸，这是厚重的钟声击打着鞋面，就像那些后半夜密密的雨点，不愿意被忘记被搁置。
　　场景是虚构的，托斯妥耶夫斯基从德累斯顿回到俄国的彼得堡，安置他死去的年轻继子。他的孩子没有被埋葬在那种植了白色小花的墓穴里，而是在他的心上凿了个洞，又像影子一般轻盈无踪地蜷缩其中。故事在这种奇特的悲痛与爱抚的幻觉中缓慢展开，被诗一般的触觉推动，就像一条河，按部就班地流过整个漫长的冬季。半夜里起来解救又遗弃一条深巷子里的狗，从房东女人柔软的身体内部伸手向他，在孩子气的蜡烛和光芒之中祈求安息，他把充满悲痛的手势伸向一切方向。而后，他被卷入阴谋之中，身不由己地同涅恰耶夫的阴谋捆绑起来，他们激愤的争夺打断了文字的节奏，河水上扬，翻滚，仿佛进入了托斯妥耶夫斯基自己写作的节奏和旋涡，他和他的孩子，他和那些纷乱无辜或是恶意的影子重叠在一起，搅扰在一起，而故事中心的声音越发响亮，它不再是一种情绪，它是精神，是对上帝的困惑和爱，是托斯妥耶夫斯基式的，而不再是巴维尔，不再是巴维尔的世界了。
　　这意外的死亡和亲情都是虚幻的，但同时又神秘地与巴维尔与托斯妥耶夫斯基的真实事件有某种暗合：巴维尔是玛利亚·德米特里耶夫娜和小职员伊萨耶夫的儿子。1855年，托斯妥耶夫斯基在塞米拉金斯克服兵役期间，认识了他们一家。他狂热地爱上了女主人。后来，伊萨耶夫去世，托斯妥耶夫斯基娶了伊萨耶夫的寡妇。此时，巴维尔年仅七岁。在这段虚构的故事中，托斯妥耶夫斯基与巴维尔的房东太太和她的小女儿似乎也维系着相似的关系，两个场景仿佛是彼此的影子，而这无论是匠心还是天然形成，都在每个相应的人物身上燃起了相应的微妙情绪。只是他们之间隔着更敏感的面纱，他们更深沉溺其中的并非是青春期的美好爱情，他们仿佛沉浸在巴维尔漂泊的黑暗中，摸索着错乱地拥抱对方，一再试图唤起别离的幽灵，唤起垂死的活力。托斯妥耶夫斯基，这个更多以陌生旅人身份出现的“大师”，又仿佛是一堵墙，不断地吸收和反射出所有的声音，而所有这些声音最后还将返回巴维尔，返回悲痛滞留不去的疯狂魔念。就像始终在钝的玻璃房间里说话、哭泣，往四壁摔打自己却不能受到一点伤害。库切用最稳定的力量最好的保持了局面。他的强大就在于那不可冲破的刀背的力量。
　　甚至语言，甚至文字，它们那么美，非常美，仿佛以一种舒缓而深的节奏从内部抚摩我，仿佛在梦里望见朦胧发光的树，一切充满天启的物体。语言默然又满含芳香，遁入最柔软的黑暗却依旧清晰可辨。悲哀的情绪在这里所能引起的新鲜感受让我惊讶，你看到那些最平凡的枝子上绽开了最不平凡的花朵，怎能不被打动？他描述一个强暴并杀害了自己十二岁女儿的犯人，他说“他服服帖帖地束手就擒，只坚持要由他自己把死孩子抱回家，搁在一张桌子上——据说他做这一切都带着无限柔情。别的囚犯都不理他，他也不同别人交谈。晚上他坐在自己的铺位上，面带微笑，嘴唇翕动着在念福音书。”他这样来描述这种“被爱过了头”的行为，这“温柔的残忍”，“像手套一样翻出了衬里的爱，露出了难看的针脚”。他的文字注满自身的欲望而滔滔不绝，又带着伟大的克制，他一下一下地敲打着门，好像夜里喝醉了回不了家的流浪汉，而每一次又都催人泪下。
　　这是我无法完成的阅读和描述，即便在合上书页之后，我仍会在剩下的分秒里在心中一遍一遍读它，念颂它，从《青春》到《彼得堡的大师》，也许更多，他能以如此纯熟又截然不同的语感出入于不同的情境之中，这也是我对库切的写作这样崇敬的重要原因。
　　而真正的美，永远是不可复述，无法言喻的。

 写给死者

我梦见给你打电话
说：对你自己好一点
但你不舒服，不想回答

我就是这样继续浪费我的爱情
试图把你从你自身救出

我一直对能量的剩余感到
惊奇，水从山上奔流而下
在雨停很久之后

或者你想离去睡觉而又走不开的
火，正在熄灭但还没完全熄灭
红色的煤
明明灭灭
比你希望的更极端更不寻常
在午夜已过的静坐中
    1972


    二十年之后
        给A.P.C

两个女人靠窗坐在桌边，光线
碎落在她们身上。
她们的谈话敲打出火花，
街上的行人也看见了
窗玻璃上的闪烁。
两个女人处于一生中最好的年华，
她们的孩子已长大，大到可以有自己的孩子。
二十年来，孤独一直是她们人生的一部分，
聪明的舌头的黑暗的边缘，
想象的黯淡的背面。
雪和雷落在街上，
她们的谈话伴随着紫色的闪电。
奇怪的是那么多女人，
在同一张桌上吃喝，
在同一个澡盆里给她们的孩子洗澡，
各自保守着秘密，
在不同的房间里，走在她们一生的地板上，
现在作为她们时代的女人流进历史，
生活在一生中最好的年华，
仿佛处于一座城市，那里一切无所禁忌，
一切也不长久。

        1971


    合二为一之镜

1，
她是你称作姐妹的人。
她最简单的举止也是迷人的，
就象刮鱼鳞时，刀锋
在她长长的手指间闪烁
没有一个多余的动作
或者当她疾速地谈论爱情
一边用钢丝绒擦亮
砸扁的壶

爱的苹果3斜刺里攥紧了你
带着突如其来的空虚
粮食使你厌腻，谷物
成熟的稻束以手拾取
爱：敞开的
冰箱
熟透的牛排在流血
它们的心脏躺在塑料薄膜上
掼黄油，杏
馊了的剩饭剩菜
 
柳条箱在果园
等着你装满
你的手擦破了，在
这棵多汁的树的
锋锐的树皮和棘刺上
摘吧摘吧摘吧
这收获是个失败
果汁顺着你的脸颊流下
好象汗水或眼泪

2，
她是你称作姐妹的人
你如同闪电照亮了房间
如同火焰在她周围摇曳
在她的大眼里眩惑了自己
列出她不被感觉的需求
把你的生活原则
大力推进她的手中

她穿行在印度印花布的世界里
她的身体起着斑纹
柔和地，佩兹利细毛披肩隆起在她的臀部
穿着棉衫走在街上
买新鲜的无花果因为你喜欢
给少数民族聚居区拍照因为你把她带去

你为什么哭，把你的眼泪擦干
我们是姐妹
在她渴求的凝视中你无言以对
你递给她另一本书
被你的铅笔划过
你递给她一盘磁带
印度的吟诵中的两支长笛

3．
夏末之夜，昆虫
煎烤在染黄的灯球里
你的皮肤也在它的光线中灼成金黄
在这镜中，你是谁？那些梦，关于
修道院与其戒律，托儿所
与其阿姨，医院
那里所有强有力的人都戴上了面具
墓地，你正坐在那些女人的坟墓上
她们在生产时死去
她们在出生时死去
有关你的姐妹出生的梦
你母亲在生产时一次次死去活来
不知如何停止
一遍遍生你

你的母亲死了，你还未出生
你两手抓住自己的头
牵引它，逆着生命的刀刃
你的胆量是产婆的胆量
学会了她的本行

       1971






      翻译

你给我看一些女人的诗
我的同龄人，或更年轻
译自你的母语

某些词出现了：敌人，烤箱，悲伤
足以让我知道
她是我同时代的女人

执迷于

爱情，我们的主题：
我们修剪它就象修剪墙上的长春藤
烘烤它就象烘烤烤箱中的面包
佩戴它就象佩戴脚上的狗链
通过双筒望远镜观察它
仿佛它是一架
给饥荒中的我们
带来食物的直升飞机
或是敌方的卫星

我开始看见那个女人
做事：搅拌米饭
熨一条裙子
打一份手稿直到黎明

试图在公用电话亭
打一个电话

在一个男人的卧室里，
电话铃响，无人接听
她听见他对别人说
没关系，她会累的----
听见他把她的故事讲给她的姐妹

她成为她的敌人
也将在她自己的某个时间
走向她自己的悲伤

毫不知觉这种伤痛的方式
是被分享的，不必要的
和政治性的

      1972


    试着与一个男人交谈

我们在沙漠中测试炸弹，

这就是我们来此的原因。

有时候我感觉有一条地下河
在变形的峭壁间推进
一个敏锐的理解角度
象太阳轨迹一样
进入这一被宣判的风景。

来到这里我们已不得不放弃的是什么--
所有的密纹唱片，我们扮演主角的电影
在附近玩耍，面包房的窗口
摆满填着巧克力的犹太干点心，
情书的语言，自杀便条的语言，
河岸边的下午
假装是孩子

来到这片沙漠
我们意欲改变
行驶在单调的绿色多汁植物之间的局面
正午漫步在幽灵之城

被寂静所包围

听起来好象是这地方的寂静
只不过它是随我们而来
如此熟悉
直到现在我们所说的一切
都是抹去它的努力--
来到这里，我们与之面面相觑

在这里，有你比没有你
更让我感到无助

你提到危险
并列举了装备
我们谈到在紧急情况--撕裂，焦渴--下
互相关心的人们
但你看着我就象看着一个紧急情况

你干涸的心想要力量
你的眼睛是别一量级的星星
它们反射的光清楚地说：退出
当你起床，在地板上踱步

谈着危险
仿佛那不是我们的
仿佛我们在测试什么别的

       1971


      八月

黄色光线中的两匹马
在树下吃着被风吹落的苹果

夏天徘徊离去  乳本属植物蹒跚摇摆
禾本科植物更加参差不齐

他们说太阳中有离子
中和了地球上磁性的田野

某种解释这一周
以及前一周是什么的方式！

如果我是岩石上晒太阳的肉体
如果我是荧光灯下灼热的大脑

如果我是梦，就象一根
火花颤跳的电线

如果我对男人来说是死亡
我不得不知道这点

他的头脑太简单，我不能继续
分享他的恶梦

我自己的恶梦越来越清晰，它们
向前史敞开

那里看起来仿佛一座点着血灯的村庄
所有的父亲都在喊：我的儿子是我的！

          1972





      开端

1.生活，醒着躺在
斑痕累累的灰屋顶下

冰正在地球表面凝结
在没有任何事情可做
以促成无论什么决定的时刻

了解蜘蛛的体内
蛛丝的组成
蛛网的第一批原子
明天可以看到

感觉厨房里每一根火柴
火光焰焰的未来

事情只能一点点来做
我写下我的生活
一分一时，一字一句
凝视公共汽车上老妇人的愤怒
数一数冰箱冰块中
空气的纹路
想象一些不曾创造的事物的
存在
这首诗
我们的生活

2.隔壁房间有个男人在睡觉
       我们是他的梦
       我们有女人的头和胸
       被掠食的鸟的身体
       有时候变成银色的毒蛇
当我们熬夜，抽烟，谈论如何生活
他辗转反侧，咕咕哝哝抱怨

隔壁房间有个男人在睡觉
    一个神经外科医生进入他的梦
    开始解剖他的大脑
    她看起来不象护士
    专注于她的工作
    有一张严厉、精致的脸，像玛丽·库里
她不是/可能是我们俩中的任何一个

隔壁房间有个男人在睡觉
    他花了一整天时间，站着
    把石头扔进黑池塘
    让它保持它的黑色
在他的梦境之外，我们正在磕磕绊绊地爬山
    手牵手，互相绊倒又互相指引
    在斑痕累累的火山岩上

                  1971

 

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) - in full Adeline Virginia Woolf, original surname Stephen
[http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/vwoolf.htm]

British author who made an original contribution to the form of the novel - also distinguished feminist essayist, critic in The Times Literary Supplement, and a central figure of Bloomsbury group. Woolf's books were published by Hogart Press, which she founded with her husband, the critic and writer Leonard Woolf. Originally their printing machine was small enough to fit on a kitchen table, but their publications later included T.S. Eliot's Waste Land (1922), fiction by Maksim Gorky, E.M. Forster, and Katherine Mansfield, and the complete twenty-four-volume translation of the works of Sigmund Freud.

"Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?"
Virginia Woolf was born in London, as the daughter of Julia Jackson Duckworth, a member of the Duckworth publishing family, and Leslie Stephen, a literary critic, a friend of Meredith, Henry James, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and George Eliot, and the founder of the Dictionary of National Biography. Leslie Stephen's first wife had been the daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. His daughter Laura from the first marriage was institutionalized because of mental retardation. In a memoir dated 1907 she wrote of her parents, "Beautiful often, even to our eyes, were their gestures, their glances of pure and unutterable delight in each other."

Woolf was educated at home by her father, and grew up at the family home at Hyde Park Gate. In mddle age she described this period in a letter to Vita Sackville-West: "Think how I was brought up! No school; mooning about alone among my father's books; never any chance to pick up all that goes on in schools—throwing balls; ragging; slang; vulgarities; scenes; jealousies!" Woolf's youth was shadowed by series of emotional shocks - her half-brother Gerald Duckworth sexually abused her and her mother died when she was in her early teens. Stella Duckworth, her half sister, took her mother's place, but died a scant two years later. Leslie Stephen, her father, suffered a slow death from cancer. When her brother Toby died in 1906, she had a prolonged mental breakdown.

Following the death of her father in 1904, Woolf moved with her sister Vanessa and two brothers to the house in Bloomsbury, which would become central to activities of the Bloomsbury group. "And part of the charm of those Thursday evenings was that they were astonishingly abstract. It was not only that Moore's book [Principia Ethica, 1903] had set us all discussing philosophy, art, religion; it was that the atmosphere - if in spite of Hawtrey I may use that word - was abstract in the extreme. The young men I have named had no 'manners' in the Hyde Park Gate sense. They criticized our arguments as severely as their own. They never seemed to notice how we were dressed or if we were nice looking or not." (from Moments of Being, ed. by Jeanne Schulkind, 1976) Vanessa agreed to marry the critic of art and literature Clive Bell. Virginia's economic situation improved she she inherited £2,500 from an aunt.

From 1905 Woolf began to write for the Times Literary Supplement. In 1912 she married the political theorist Leonard Woolf, who had returned from serving as an administarator in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Woolf published her first book, THE VOYAGE OUT, in 1915. In 1919 appeared NIGHT AND DAY, a realistic novel set in London, contrasting the lives of two friends, Katherine and Mary. JACOB'S ROOM (1922) was based upon the life and death of her brother Toby.

With TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1927) and THE WAVES (1931)Woolf established herself as one of the leading writers of modernism. On the publication of To the Lighthouse, Lytton Strachey wrote: "It is really most unfortunate that she rules out copulation - not the ghost of it visible - so that her presentation of things becomes little more... than an arabesque - an exquisite arabesque, of course." The Waves is perhaps Woolf's most difficult novel. It follows in soliloquies the lives of six persons from childhood to old age. Louis Kronenberger noted in The New York Times that Woolf was not really corncerned with people, but "the poetic symbols, of life--the changing seasons, day and night, bread and wine, fire and cold, time and space, birth and death and change."

In these works Woolf developed innovative literary techniques in order to reveal women's experience and find an alternative to the male-dominated views of reality. In her essay 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown' Woolf argued that John Galsworthy, H.G. Wells and other realistic English novelist dealt in surfaces but to get underneath these surfaces one must use less restricted presentation of life, and such devices as stream of consciousness and interior monologue and abandon linear narrative.

MRS DALLOWAY (1925) formed a giant web of thoughts of several groups of people during the course of a single day. There is little action, but much movement in time from present to past and back again through the characters memories. The central figure, Clarissa Dalloway, is a wealthy London hostess. She spends her day in London preparing for her evening party. She recalls her life before World War I, berofe her marriage to Richard Dalloway, and her friendship with the unconventional Sally Seton, and her relationship with Peter Walsh. At her party she never meets the shell-shocked veteran Septimus Smith, one of the first Englishmen to enlist in the war. Sally returns as Lady Rossetter, Peter Walsh is still enamored with Mrs. Dalloway, the prime minister arrives, and Smith commits suicide. To the Lighthouse had a tripartite structure: part 1 presented the Victorian family life, the second part covers a ten-year period, and the third part is a long account of a morning in which ghosts are laid to rest. The central figure in the novel, Mrs. Ramsay, was based on Woolf's mother. Also other characters in the book were drawn from Woolf's family memories.

"So that is marriage, Lily thought, a man and a woman looking at a girl throwing a ball." (from To the Lighthouse)
During the inter-war period Woolf was at the center of literary society both in London and at her home in Rodmell, near Lewes, Sussex. She lived in Richmond from 1915 to 1924, in Bloomsbury from 1924 to 1939, and maintained the house in Romdell from 1919-41. The Bloomsbury group was initially based at the Gordon Square residence of Virginia and her sister Vanessa (Bell). The consolidation of the group's beliefs in unifying aesthetic concerns occurred under the influence of the philosopher G.E. Moore (1873-195 . The group included among others E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Leonard Woolf. By the early 1930s, the group ceased to exist in its original form.

In the event of a Nazi invastion, Woolf and Leonard had made provisions to kill themselves. After the final attack of mental illness Woolf loaded her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse near her Sussex home on March 28, 1941. On her note to her husband she wrote: "I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness to you but cannot go on and spoil your life." Her suicide has colored interpretations of her works, which have been read perhaps too straightly as explorations of her own traumas.

Virginia Woolf's concern with feminist thematics are dominant in A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN (1929). In it she made her famous statement: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." The book originated from two expanded and revised lectures the author presented at Cambridge University's Newnham and Girton Colleges in October 1928. It deals with the obstacles and prejudices that have hindered women writers, and analyzes the differences between women as objects of representation and women as authors of representation. Woolf argued that a change in the forms of literature was necessary because most literature had been "made by men out of their own needs for their own uses." In the last chapter it explores the possibility of an androgynous mind. Woolf refers to Coleridge who said that a great mind is androgynous and states that when this fusion takes place the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties. "Perhaps a mind that is purely masculine cannot create, any more than a mind that is purely feminine..." THREE GUINEAS (193 examined the necessity for women to make a claim for their own history and literature. ORLANDO (192, a fantasy novel, traced the career of the androgynous protagonist from a masculine identity within the Elisabethan court to a feminine identity in 1928. The book was illustrated with pictures of Woolf's lover, Vita Sackville-West, dressed as Orlando. According to Nigel Nicolson, the initiative to start the affair came as much on Virginia's side as on the more experienced Vita's. Their relationship coincided with a period of great creative productivity in Woolf's career as a writer. In 1994 Eileen Atkins dramatized their letters in her play Vita and Virginia, starring Atkins and Vanessa Redgrave.

As an essayist Woolf was prolific, publishing some 500 essays in periodicals and collections, beginning 1905. Characteristic for Woolf's essays are dialogic nature of style and continual questioning of opinion - her reader is often directly addressed, in a conversational tone, and her rejection of an authoritative voice links her essays to the tradition of Montaigne.

Leonard (Sidney) Woolf (1880-1969) - Born in London as the son of a barrister. Woolf studied at Cambridge and in 1904 he went into civil service to Ceylon. His first book, The Village in the Jungle, appeared in 1913. Woolf joined the Fabian Society and wrote for The New Statesman. From 1923 to 1930 he was a literary editor on the Nation. In 1917 he set up a small hand press at Hogart House, and worked as the director of the Hogarth Press until his death. Among Woolf's works are novels, non-fiction and his five volume memoirs Sowing (1960), Growing (1961), Beginning Again (1964), Downhill All the Way (1967) and The Journey Not the Arrival Matters (1969). - For further information: Leonard Woolf by S.S. Myerowitz (1982); A Marriage of True Minds by G. Spater and I.M. Parsons (1977) - For further reading: Virginia Woolf by Quentin Bell (1972, 2 vols.); Moments of Being, ed. by Jeanne Schulkind (1976); The Novels of Virginia Woolf from Beninning to End by M.A. Leaska (1977); Virginia Woolf: A Feminist Slant by by J. Marcus (1983); Woman of Letters by Rose Phyllis (197; Virginia Woolf: a Winter's Life by Lyndall Gordon (1984); Virginia Woolf by Rachel Bowlby (198; Virginia Woolf and the Fictions of Psychoanalysis by Elizabeth Abel (1989); Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work by Louise DeSalvo (1989); Virginia Woolf: A Literary Life by John Mepham (1991); Virginia Woolf: A Collection of Critical Essays by M. Homans (1993); Vita and Virginia by Suzanne Raitt (1993); Virginia Woolf by Quentin Bell (1996); The Feminist Aesthetics of Virginia Woolf by Jane Goldman (199; Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee (1996); Virginia Woolf by Nigel Nicolson (2000) - Note: Toni Morrison, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, wrote her thesis at Cornell University on Faulkner and Virginia Woolf. - See also: Katherine Mansfield, Marcel Proust
SELECTED WORKS:

THE VOYAGE OUT, 1915
NIGHT AND DAY, 1919
MONDAY OR TUESDAY, 1921
JACOB'S ROOM, 1922
MRS. DALLOWAY, 1925 - suom. - film 1998, dir. by Marleen Gorris, adapted by Eileen Atkins, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Kitchen, Rupert Graves, John Standing, Lena Headley. - "What had seemed at first a frivolous exercise in social decorum has turned into a probing examination of the Big Question that haunts our lives. As Mrs. Dalloway leaves the party to stand outside the window at her balcony, looking down at the hard, upraised iron spikes of the fence below - the same kind of spikes that impaled the body of the wretched Septimus - she asks to herself, Is there a plan for our lives? Why do we live on in the face of pain and tragedy?" (from Novels into Film by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, 1997)
THE COMMON READER, 1925
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, 1927 - Majakka - film 1983
ORLANDO, 1928 - suom. (Chief model for the character of Orlando was writer Vita Sackville-West, with whom Woolf had a lesbian relationship) - film 1992, written and dir. by Sally Potter, starring Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Lothaire Bluteau, John Wood
A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN, 1929 - Oma huone
THE WAVES, 1931 - Aallot
FLUSH, 1933 - Runoilijan koira
THE YEARS, 1937
THREE GUINEAS, 1938
ROGER FRY: A BIOGRAPHY, 1940
BETWEEN THE ACTS, 1941
THE DEATH OF THE MOTH, 1942
A HAUNTED HOUSE, 1943
THE MOMENT AND OTHER ESSAYS, 1947
THE CAPTAIN'S DEATH BED AND OTHER ESSAYS, 1950
A WRITER'S DIARY, 1953(ed. by Leonard Woolf)
VIRGINIA WOOLF AND LYTTON STRACHEY, 1956
GRANITE AND RAINBOW, 1958
THE LADY IN THE LOOKINGGLASS, 1960
CONTEMPORARY WRITERS, 1960
NURSE LUGTON'S GOLDEN THIMBLE, 1966
COLLECTED ESSAYS, 1967 (4 vols., ed. by Leonard Woolf)
MRS. DALLOWAY'S PARTY, 1973
MOMENTS OF BEING, 1976 - Elettyjä hetkiä
BOOKS AND PORTRAITS, 1977
THE LETTERS OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, 1975-80 (5 vols., ed. by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann)
WOMEN AND FICTION, 1979 (ed. by Michèle Barrett)
THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, 5 vol., 1977-84 (ed. by Anne Olivier Bell)
THE LETTERS OF VIRGINIA WOOLF TO VITA SACKWILLE-WEST, 1984
THE COMPLETE SHORTER FICTION OF VIRGINIA WOOLF - Nainen peilissä
THE ESSAYS, 1986-94
A PASSIONATE APPRENTICE: THE EARLY JOURNALS, 1897-1909, 1990 (ed. by Mitchell Leaska)
A WOMAN'S ESSAYS, 1992
THE CROWDED DANCE OF MODERN LIFE, 1993