The changing novel form : Virginia Woolf and John Banville

Abstract

This thesis examines Virginia Woolf’s and John Banville’s obsession with art and formal experimentation, and how they define the relationship between the artistic imagination and reality to discuss the problem of representation in art in terms of the changing novel form. By looking at the changing form of the novel through the study of both writers’ artistic methods, an artistic genealogy between Woolf and Banville can be established by reading Banville’s work in the context of, and as a counterpoint to, Woolf’s. The narrative and artistic continuity between the ideas and work of both writers demonstrate how the novel has developed since its beginnings in the eighteenth century. The problematization of writing, as demonstrated in the discussion of art through art in these writers’ texts, continues to be the central concern of the contemporary critical novel.