Description
Book SynopsisA Specially Tender Piece of Eternity considers and redefines Virginia Woolf's treatment of time. By focusing on the key ideas of moments of being, ecstasy and rapture the book argues the close relation between Woolf's experiments in narrative and her concern to challenge ineffability in portraying the experience of a-linear time.
Trade ReviewA Specially Tender Piece of Eternity is a critically scrupulous and imaginative analysis of Woolf’s revolutionary representation of time as non-linear, fluid, fugitive and—at certain 'ecstatic' moments—transcendent. Prudente’s somewhat surprising emphasis on the ecstatic foundations of Woolf’s representations of everyday sensations and experiences is a welcome contribution to Woolf criticism. -- Maria DiBattista, professor of English at Princeton University and author of Imagining Virginia Woolf: An Experiment in Critical Biography
Teresa Prudente's A Specially Tender Piece of Eternity: Virginia Woolf and the Experience of Time offers a remarkably nuanced analysis of perception, emotion and recollection in Woolf's work. The volume seamlessly intertwines sophisticated philosophical inquiry into the workings of the mind with meticulously close readings of Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway, as well as key essays such as "Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown" and "The Russian Point of View," and personal writings including "A Sketch of the Past." Significantly deepening our understanding of Woolf's complex fascination with intense states of awareness and the ineffable mystery of time, Prudente deftly traces the links between Woolf's own life-altering experiences and her techniques for infusing her literary work with these revelatory elements of rapture, incandescence, immediacy, and interconnectedness. -- Vara Neverow, professor of English at Southern Connecticut State University and past president of the International Virginia Woolf Society
One of the significant qualities of Teresa Prudente's book is its careful and sustained grounding in Woolf's statements about time and fiction in her essays, and, more significantly, in close attention to the content, style, and structure in her novels. * Woolf Studies Annual *
Table of Contents1 Contents 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction Part 4 I. "It's Ecstasy that Matters" Chapter 5 1. Contemplation, Solitude, Love Chapter 6 2. Memory and A-linear Time Chapter 7 3. Ecstasy and Emptiness Part 8 II. "If Only I Could Write!" Chapter 9 4. Ecstasy and Ineffability Chapter 10 5. The Artistic Re-Creation of Ecstasy Part 11 III. "Communication is Health" Chapter 12 6. A-linear Time and Stream of Consciousness Chapter 13 7. "The Caves Shall Connect": Polyphony and Decentering Woolf and Gide Chapter 14 8. "To Be Continuing to Live": A-linear Time and the Novel 15 Bibliography 16 Index 17 About the Author
