Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Characters as Protagonist in Virginia Woolf’s Kew Gardens

Simone Santana Ferrazssferraz1@hotmail.com

Modernism Revolt against the conservative

values of realism; Use of descontinuous fragments; Focuses in metropolis, cities and

urban landscapes; DISPLACEMENT: deslocation of

meaning and sense; Self-consciousness; individualism;

slice of live;

Modernism STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS – tracing non-linear thought processes, moving by

“the logic of association” or “the logic of the unconscious”;

Point of view: rejection of the single, authoritative, omniscient point of view for a narrative focalized instead on the consciousness of characters whose point of view is limited--or through characters who establish relative, multiple points of view--or through a shifting & plastic narrating consciousness that moves in & out of different characters' views

Kew Gardens

Kew Gardens People work as scenery and the garden is

the main character; The story is around the garden point of

view; “they walked on the past flower-bed, not

walking four abreaast, and soon diminished in size among the trees and looked half transparent as the sunlight and shade swam over their backs in large trembling irregular patches” (WOOLF, p. 41)

Kew Gardens Slice of conversation;

“in the middle of the life in the garden, it seems that the narrator opens a parentheses to show how humans can be”.

[SSF]

Kew Gardens The narrator gives life to the garden

through the detailed description:

“From the oval-shaped flower-bed there rose perhaps a hundred stalks spreading into heart-shaped or tongue-shaped leaves half way up and unfurling at the tip red or yellow petals marked with spots of colour raised upon the surface” (WOOLF, p. 39)

Kew Gardens Reader’s comprehension;

“In the end, the narrator tells that life keeps in this way, nothing changed. It’s still hot because of the summer time, the colors of the flowers and the personal conflicts between people, the snail worries, etc.”

References BRITAIN EXPRESS. Guide Travel. Available

in: http://www.britainexpress.com/London/kew.htm. Access: September, 30, 2011. At: 15h23;

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. Official website: http://www.kew.org/index.htm. Access: September, 30, 2011. At: 16h43

WOOLF, Virginia. Kew Gardens. In Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. London: Dover, 1997.

Kew Gardens

Thank you!