A Specially Tender Piece of Eternity

Book excerpt: A Specially Tender Piece of Eternity examines Virginia Woolf's treatment of time both as a theme of her works and as an essential element in her experimental narrative techniques. By drawing on both stylistic analysis and philosophy, Teresa Prudente investigates Paul Riceour's concept of a-linear time within Woolf's work, as both the possibility for the subject to enter a timeless temporal dimension (in Orlando and To the Lighthouse) and as a tragic alteration and separation from reality (in Mrs. Dalloway). Through the examination of the meta-narrative elements in Woolf's novels, and of her original employment of interior monologue and free indirect speech, Prudente redefines and reassesses Woolf's experiments in narrative that challenged ineffability while recreating moments of ecstasy. Book jacket.