Abstract | Virginia Woolf, as a modernist writer, sought out a novel approach to writing fiction deeming traditional and conventional narrative techniques inadequate to convey human psychologies and experiences in a rapidly changing world after the First World War. Woolf plunges into her characters’ intimate and personal thoughts, ‘digs tunnels’ through their interior worlds and brings human consciousness to the forefront of her novels. Their observations and recollections are equally crucial for their characterisation as external perceptions of other characters. Immersed in their thoughts, time appears to pass differently for each character. Memories from the past intrude upon their present experiences and along with an explosion of thoughts and feelings comprise a collage of human consciousness. Whether Woolf got her inspiration from Bergson’s theory of duration or the dual conceptualisation of time proposed by Moore and Russell, one thing is certain, Woolf attempted to ‘come closer to life’ in her novels by translating into words the myriad of impressions that fall upon our minds during ordinary days. That is why her novels reduce the plot and time and focus on human consciousness. Woolf relies on past traumas and crystallises certain moments in her characters’ lives and memories for her readers to experience the beauty of fleeting moments. Besides subjective perception of time and impressionistic images, Woolf weaves characters, reminiscences, and sentiments that echo her personal experiences in her novels. Obsession with a tyrant father, missing mother figure, ensnarement of a Victorian ideal of femininity, artistic concerns, death, illness, trauma are the staples of her life that found their way into her fiction. Literature was her medium of expressing and alleviating her obsessions and traumas. In addition to exploring subjective perception of time of Woolf’s characters, this thesis will attempt to demonstrate just how reliant Woolf’s confessional fiction is on her personal life, that is, it will explore the boundary between autobiography and fictionality. |