Why should you read Virginia Woolf? - Iseult Gillespie

翻译人员: Chong Liu 校对人员: Irene Xie

What if William Shakespeare had a sister who matched his imagination,

如果威廉·莎士比亚 有一个与他的想象、风趣

his wit, and his way with words?

以及说话方式都相符 的妹妹，会发生什么呢？

Would she have gone to school and set the stage alight?

她会去学校，然后写出舞台巨著吗？

In her essay "A Room of One's Own,"

弗吉妮娅·伍尔芙在自己的散文

Virginia Woolf argues that this would have been impossible.

《一间自己的房间》中说： 这本来是不可能发生的。

She concocts a fictional sister who's stuck at home,

伍尔夫编造了一个 被困在家中的虚构的妹妹，

snatching time to scribble a few pages

在她发现自己

before she finds herself betrothed and runs away.

被许配给别人并逃跑之前， 抓紧时间胡乱写了几篇文章。

While her brother finds fame and fortune, she remains abandoned and anonymous.

然而她的哥哥靠这些得到了 名气和运气，她却默默无闻被人遗忘。

In this thought experiment,

在这个思维实验中，

Woolf demonstrates the tragedy of genius restricted,

伍尔芙展示了一个 受到禁锢的天才的悲剧，

and looks back through time for hints of these hidden histories.

并穿越时光回首那些 隐藏在历史背后的故事。

She wrote, "When one reads of a witch being ducked,

她写道：“当有人读到了： 一个被按入水中的女巫、

of a woman possessed by devils,

一个被撒旦操纵的女人、

of a wise woman selling herbs,

一个在贩售香料的聪慧女人、

or even a very remarkable man who had a mother,

或是一个拥有母亲 的非常了不起的男人，

then I think we're on the track of a lost novelist,

我想，我们就走上了一条不归路， 一条变成迷茫的小说家、

a suppressed poet,

压抑的诗人、

of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen."

无言的、可耻的简·奥斯汀的不归路。”

"A Room of One's Own" considers a world denied great works of art

《一间自己的房间》建构了一个世界， 这个世界由于排外和不平等，

due to exclusion and inequality.

否认了伟大的文学艺术。

How best can we understand the internal experience of alienation?

我们怎么样才能最好地 理解被孤立的内心体验呢？

In both her essays and fiction,

弗吉妮娅·伍尔芙 在她的散文和小说里，

Virginia Woolf shapes the slippery nature of subjective experience into words.

用文字描述出了 这个主观体验的狡猾本质。

Her characters frequently lead inner lives that are deeply at odds

她笔下的人物时常会有与他们的外在

with their external existence.

十分不相符的内心世界。

To help make sense of these disparities, the next time you read Woolf,

为了更好的理解这样的差异， 等你下次阅读伍尔芙的作品时，

here are some aspects of her life and work to consider.

不妨去考虑一下她的工作与生活。

She was born Adeline Virginia Stephen in 1882 to a large and wealthy family,

1882年，她出生在 一个庞大而富有的家庭，

which enabled her to pursue a life in the arts.

被取名为 Adeline Virginia Stephen， 从此得以过上与艺术相伴的生活。

The death of her mother in 1895 was followed by that of her half-sister,

1895年，她的母亲去世， 在未来的十年里，

father, and brother within the next ten years.

她同父异母的姐姐，父亲， 和哥哥也相继去世。

These losses led to Woolf's first depressive episode

亲人们的离去导致了伍尔芙 第一次的抑郁症发作，

and subsequent institutionalization.

以及随后病情的恶化。

As a young woman, she purchased a house

年轻时，她曾在伦敦 的布卢姆斯伯里地区

in the Bloomsbury area of London with her siblings.

和她的兄弟姐妹们 一起买了一套房子。

This brought her into contact with a circle of creatives,

这使她与创作圈产生了联系，

including E.M. Forster,

包括 E.M. 福斯特，

Clive Bell,

克莱坞∙贝尔，

Roger Fry,

罗格∙弗莱，

and Leonard Woolf.

和莱纳德∙伍尔芙。

These friends became known as the Bloomsbury Group,

这些友人被称作 “布卢姆斯伯里文化圈”而闻名于世，

and Virginia and Leonard married in 1912.

并且弗吉妮娅和莱纳德于 1912年结婚。

The members of this group were prominent figures in Modernism,

这个圈子里的成员 都是现代主义中的杰出人物，

a cultural movement that sought to push the boundaries

现代主义是一场文化运动， 以求突破

of how reality is represented.

如何展示现实世界的界限。

Key features of Modernist writing include the use of stream of consciousness,

现代主义写作的主要特点 包括意识流的运用，

interior monologue,

内心独白，

distortions in time,

时间扭曲，

and multiple or shifting perspectives.

以及多重观点和转移观点。

These appear in the work of Ezra Pound,

这些特点出现在了埃兹拉·庞德、

Gertrude Stein,

格特鲁德·斯泰因、

James Joyce,

詹姆斯·乔伊斯

and Woolf herself.

以及伍尔芙自己的作品中。

While reading Joyce's "Ulysses," Woolf began writing "Mrs. Dalloway."

在阅读詹姆斯·乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》时， 伍尔芙开始创作《达洛维夫人》。

Like "Ulysses," the text takes place over the course of a single day

和《尤利西斯》一样，这部作品 描述了发生在一天中的事情，

and opens under seemingly mundane circumstances.

和非常开放的世俗环境。

"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself."

“达洛维夫人说 她想为自己买点儿花。”

But the novel dives deeply into the characters' traumatic pasts,

但这本小说还是融入了 人物令人痛苦的过去，

weaving the inner world of numbed socialite Clarissa Dalloway,

编织了麻木的交际花克拉丽莎·达洛维， 以及患有炮弹休克症

with that of the shell-shocked veteran Septimus Warren Smith.

的老兵塞普蒂莫斯·沃伦·史密斯 的内心世界。

Woolf uses interior monologue to contrast the rich world of the mind

伍尔芙通过运用内心独白， 对比了人物富有的精神世界

against her characters' external existences.

和其外部存在。

In her novel "To the Lighthouse,"

在她的小说《到灯塔去》中，

mundane moments, like a dinner party, or losing a necklace

世俗的时刻， 比如一场晚宴，或失去项链，

trigger psychological revelations in the lives of the Ramsay's,

触发了拉姆齐一家 生活的心理启示，

a fictionalized version of Woolf's family growing up.

这就是伍尔芙的家族史 的一个虚构版本。

"To the Lighthouse" also contains one of the most famous examples

《到灯塔去》也囊括了 伍尔芙激进的时间表达方式中

of Woolf's radical representation of time.

一个最著名的例子。

在《时光流逝（Time Passes）》一节中，

In the Time Passes section,

ten years are distilled into about 20 pages.

十年的时光被凝练成了20页的文字。

Here, the lack of human presence in the Ramsays' beach house

在这里，由于拉姆齐家 的沙滩别墅鲜有人烟，

allows Woolf to reimagine time in flashes and fragments of prose.

让伍尔夫可以用闪现的片段 和散文诗重新想象时间。

"The house was left. The house was deserted.

“房子被留下了，房子被遗弃了。

It was left like a shell on a sand hill to fill with dry salt grains

它像个被留在沙丘上的贝壳， 里面装满了盐粒，

now that life had left it."

现在就连生活也遗弃了它。“

In her novel "The Waves,"

在她的作品《海浪》中，

there is little distinction between the narratives of the six main characters.

对六个主要人物的叙述 几乎没有区别。

Woolf experiments with collective consciousness,

伍尔夫用集体意识进行实验，

at times collapsing the six voices into one.

有时把六个声音合并为一个。

“这不是我回首的一个人生：

"It is not one life that I look back upon:

I am not one person: I am many people:

我不是一个人：我是很多人：

I do not altogether know who I am,

我不完全知道我是谁，

Jinny, Susan, Neville, Rhoda or Louis,

金妮，苏珊，内维尔，罗达，或路易斯，

or how to distinguish my life from their's."

或者如何区分我的生活和他们的生活？”

In "The Waves," six become one, but in the gender-bending "Orlando,"

在《浪潮》中，这六个人成为了一个人， 但是在性别扭曲的《奥兰多》中，

a single character inhabits multiple identities.

一个单一的角色 又分裂成为了不同的人格。

The protagonist is a poet who switches between genders and lives for 300 years.

主人公是一位在不同性别间切换， 并且生活了 300 年的诗人。

With its fluid language and approach to identity,

《奥兰多》凭借流畅的语言 和身份认同的方式，

"Orlando" is considered a key text in gender studies.

被认为是性别研究的重要文本。

The mind can only fly so far from the body

心灵在回到生活的约束之前，

before it returns to the constraints of life.

只能飞离身体这么远。

Like many of her characters, Woolf's life ended in tragedy

伍尔芙的生命终结于悲剧中， 就像她创作的许多角色一样，

when she drowned herself at the age of 59.

她在 59 岁时投水自尽。

Yet, she expressed hope beyond suffering.

然而，她认为希望会超越痛苦。

Through deep thought, Woolf's characters are shown

通过深刻的思考，

to temporarily transcend their material reality,

伍尔芙笔下的人物 暂时超越了物质的现实，

and in its careful consideration of the complexity of the mind,

仔细考虑了心灵的复杂性之后，

her work charts the importance of making our inner lives known to each other.

她的作品描绘了让我们 的内心世界相互了解的重要性。