Madness as Metaphysics: Schizophrenia and Narrative Fragmentation in Virginia Woolf’s the Waves
Journal Title: International Journal of Social Science And Human Research - Year 2025, Vol 8, Issue 03
Abstract
In The Waves (1931), written by Virginia Woolf, the conventional narrative coherence is replaced with a fractured, polyphonic framework. This is similar to the perceptual and ontological dislocations that patients who suffer from schizophrenia experience. The argument presented in this article is that Woolf's experimental form goes beyond the domain of basic stylistic innovation in order to investigate the ephemeral nature of reality, identity, and time. The paper makes this claim by using schizophrenia as a theoretical framework. Through the alignment of six protagonists' discontinuous soliloquies, Woolf reimagines the shattered consciousness that schizophrenics experience as a philosophical inquiry into reality. This is accomplished through the use of the word "shattered consciousness." The novel's narrative fragmentation, which is characterized by shifting identities, non-linear chronology, and linguistic collapse, is a reflection of the epistemological crisis that modernity is experiencing, which occurs when Cartesian certainty is drowned in existential doubt. This research offers a novel reading of The Waves, which is a pioneering combination of psychological and philosophical topics. It does so by pulling from modernist theory, psychoanalysis, and continental philosophy. One can observe how Woolf's characters, particularly Rhoda and Bernard, represent the chaotic collapse of individual boundaries that allows for a paradoxical merger with the cosmic "waves" of existence by carefully reading the text on a more in-depth level. By employing schizophrenia as a metaphor for the ontological disintegration of modernity, the study contends that Woolf's formal experimentation destroys the illusion of coherence in story and human awareness. Specifically, the study focuses on the phenomenon of schizophrenia.
Authors and Affiliations
Asst. Lect. Murtada Ali Hussein, Asst. Lect. zainalabdeen abd alrazaq shnain aljanabi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP762976
- DOI 10.47191/ijsshr/v8-i3-25
- Views 17
- Downloads 0
Value Chain Analysis: Small-Scale Tahiti Broom Production in Compostela, Davao De Oro
Tiger grass (Thysanolaena Taxima) grows in abundance in the hilly areas of Barangay Mangayon, Compostela, Davao de Oro. One of the strengths of the area is the growing number of Tahiti grass (Thysanolaena maxima) and far...
Impact of the Lifelong Education Concept on the Educational Management System of Chinese Colleges and Countermeasures Research
With the development of the times and the progress of society, the importance of education has become more and more obvious, and people's attitude towards education has changed from “short term” to “long term”, and the e...
Toponymic Representation Of Central Asia In Xuan Zang’s “Great Tang Records On The Western Regions”
This article is dedicated to the book “The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions” which recounts the historical journey of the Chinese traveller Xuan Zang to Central Asia in 627 AD, as he embarked on a travelling to...
Factors Affecting the Success of Tourism Village Development in Kampung Bandar, Pekanbaru City
Research was conducted in Kampung Bandar, Pekanbaru City, to identify the factors influencing the success of Tourism Village development and to assess the economic impact of tourism activities. Data analysis was carried...
Utilization of Local History of Pengging Site as a Source of Digital Literacy-Based History Learning with a Constructivist Approach
This study aims to determine the use of local history of Pengging Site as a source of digital literacy-based historical learning with a constructivist approach. In this study using qualitative descriptive research method...