Relativity, Quantum Physics, and Consciousness in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse
2009; Indiana University Press; Volume: 32; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2979/jml.2009.32.3.39
ISSN1529-1464
Autores Tópico(s)Literature: history, themes, analysis
ResumoThis essay argues that To the Lighthouse demonstrates Woolf 's understanding of the connections between space, time, objectivity, and consciousness and reveals the degree to which her ideas both resemble and diverge from those expressed by Einstein. Whereas Woolf 's notions of space and time are intimately linked with the preeminent scientist's, her ideas of fluid subject-object boundaries offer a holistic conception of the world that proves far more compatible with the controversial assertions made by quantum physicists such as Bohr and Heisenberg in the early 1900s than with Einstein's adamant belief in objective realism. The author discusses how Mrs. Ramsey embodies key elements of the special and general theories of relativity at the same time as she supersedes them via her conscious connections to people and objects around her. Mrs. Ramsay's unique worldview is counterbalanced by her husband's traditional, representational logic, and dramatized through their interpersonal conflicts. Lily Briscoe's artistic development reveals Woolf 's own complex beliefs and mirrors the dramatic shifts that occurred in modern scientific epistemologies.
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