VIRGINIA WOOLE, THE DIALECTICS OF FEMALE DESIRE: TO THE LIGHTHOUSE AND BETWEEN THE ACTS

Pričujoče delo je poskus celostne obravnave avtorice, ki je kljub temu, da velja za kontroverzno, vendarle predstavnica moderne klasike. Pogosto se sklicujejo nanjo, in to ne le na polju literarnega. Moj namen je bil pokazati, kako se Virginia Woolf razvija in v skladu s tem spreminja tudi svoj odnos do najbolj žgočih problemov — ne le tistih svojega časa, temveč tudi bolj univerzalnih —, še posebej če zadevajo odnose med spolomain kako vendarle ves čas ostaja ona sama oziroma kako je bilo vse povedano že na samem začetku. Glavna os, okoli katere sem sklenila urediti svoje izsledke v izpolnjevanju cilja, ki sem si ga zadala, je ženska želja. Ta pa se izmika jasni določitvi, kar me je prisililo, da sem se problema lotila skozi precej široko optiko. Pri tem so mi zelo pomagala aktualna teoretična dela. V izhodišče sem postavila hipotezo, da je bila Virginia Woolf feministka in socialistka — značilnosti, ki so ju sicer spodbijali številni kritiki. Ugotovila sem, da se je, še več, vsled svoje močne intuicije boleče zavedala vseh problemov časa. Njeno videnje sveta kot v temelju ambivalentnega in s tem zavezanega dialektičnemu napredovanju je bilo revolucionarno samo po sebi. Če je to navidez nanehno napredovanje oz. napredek lahko razlog za optimizem, pa je po drugi strani vir nikoli končanega boja za boljši svet, saj ta po sami logiki stvari očitno nikoli ne more biti dosežen. Kar zadeva veèni spor o njenem "androgenem" obdobju, so moje ugotovitve jasne: njen koncept androgenosti je zelo kompleksen, saj zajema vse plasti življenja: sociološko, psihološko, ekonomsko in politično. Je integralni del njenega celotnega opusa, čeprav ga lahko razumemo le kot sredstvo za dosego cilja — vsaj neke vste harmonije med moškim in žensko, do katere pa lahko pride le, če sta si enakopravna, ko torej lahko postaneta prijatelja.The present work tries to offer a holistic treatment of a rather controversial author, who nevertheless is a modern classic and is often referred to – not exclusively in the literary field, at that. My idea was to show how Virginia Woolf evolves and accordingly changes her attitude towards the most crucial problems, not only those of her own time, but also more universal ones – especially where they concern the relations between the male and the female sexand how she, nevertheless, always remains the same, how it was all there right from the start. The main axis around which I chose to structure my findings in the pursuit of the goal that I set myself is female desire, which eludes an unambiguous pinning down. This is also the reason I had to take a fairly broad view of the theme, finding substantial help in recent theoretical works. I started with the hypothesis that Woolf was a feminist and a socialist, two characteristics that were disputed by many critics of her workand I found out that she was, moreover, painfully aware of all the problems of her time, owing to her profound intuition. Her seeing the world as utterly ambiguous and therefore bound to dialectical progression was revolutionary in itself. If this apparent progress does foster an optismistic view, it is, on the other hand, a source of eternal strife for a better world because the latter, as a consequence, can never be attained. As regards the eternal dispute about her "androgyny" phase, my findings are unequivocal: her concept of androgyny is a complex oneit comprises all levels of life: psychological, sociological, economic and political. It is an integral part of her entire work, although it can only be interpreted as a means of achieving the final goal – at least some sort of harmony and unity between a man and a woman, but which can only happen when they both stand on equal ground – when, therefore, they can become friends