10'7'08 Mrs' Dalloway

1
10.7.08 Mrs. Dalloway

• Schedule
• Attendance Questions?
• Remembering last week.
• Dalloway Q.
• Class discussion of Dalloway
• HW read Ellison

• Goals
• Analyze ways in which modes of access relate to
  the story accessed.

2
Last week

• Talked about Don Quixote and Madame Bovary.
• Concerned with attitudes toward immersion as
  demonstrated by the presentation of two immersed
  readers.
• Touched a little on how their immersion relates
  to our immersion.
• For DQ, we noted ways in which Cervantes was
  playing with our immersion framed stories, crazy
  immersed protagonist, interruptions at high drama
  moments, etc. We also talked about problems of
  identification and empathy.
• For MB, we found the style less obtrusive, often
  passing right over interjections, but many of us
  found the realist content boring at times. With
  the authors voice out of the way and the more
  realist scenarios, it was easier for many of us
  to feel empathy, making the characters central to
  immersion. In this case, it seemed we did not
  find identification with the immersed to be as
  problematic.

3
What we didnt talk about

• Was the way in which these immersive
  characteristics help compose the story.
• This week, we will begin to ask these kinds of
  questions
• Why does the point of view matter?
• How does my immersion play into the story being
  told?
• Does my relationship to the characters or to the
  story have anything to do with who they are or
  what happens?

4
Mrs. Dalloway.

• Before we discuss Dalloway, we need to know
• What happened in this selection?
• What is the perspective?
• What is the mode of access?
• Are there DQ-like interruptions?
• Was it immersive?

5
Dalloway Question.

• What is the effect of the authors writing style
  on the readers ability, or inability, to be
  immersed in the text?  Does the stream of
  consciousness approach enhance the readers
  immersion experience, or does it detract from it?
  For example, in the quote below, the narrator
  transitions from a train of thought about Hugh's
  wife to her own hat, and how she feels about it.
  The entire selection is made up of similar
  instances (hence the streaming). How does this
  effect the reader's ability to engage with the
  text? Clarissa Dalloway would quite
  understand without requiring him to specify. Ah
  yes, she did of course what a nuisance and felt
  very sisterly and oddly conscious at the same
  time of her hat. Not the right hat for the early
  morning, was that it? For Hugh always made her
  feel, as he bustled on, raising his hat rather
  extravagantly and assuring her that she might be
  a girl of eighteen, and of course he was coming
  to her party tonight, Evelyn absolutely insisted,
  only a little late he might be after the party at
  the Palace to since he had to take one of Jims
  boys, -- she always felt a little skimpy beside
  Hugh schoolgirlish but attached to him, partly
  from having known him always, but she did think
  him a good sort in his own way, though Richard
  was nearly driven mad by him (p.3)