TANGLED IN A GOLDEN MESH Synesthesia in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse

Abstract

While synesthesia is generally considered to be a subjective representation of one's perception of the world, this essay seeks to problematise and to extend the notion of synesthesia solely being a trait of subjectivity, suggesting that is also works as a method of connection. In the literary field of modernism the idea of merging the senses into an all-encompassing experience has been prominent and widely explored. By examining the use of synesthetic aesthetics in Virginia Woolf's novels Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), this essay contributes with knowledge on how Woolf's use of synesthesia works as a means of unification on multiple levels. It gives insight on how her personal understanding of perception affects her depiction of impressions; how her vanguard use of sound and noise works in relation to geographical place; and emphasises her persistent search for a mutual foundation of understanding regarding one's private, internal experience of reality