EMOTIONAL CHARACTER OF POPULAR CULTURE IN VIRGINIA WOOLF–S MRS DALLOWAY, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, AND THE WAVES

Abstract

Accepting John Fiske–s definitions of popular culture, according to which popular culture is created in the encounter between the culture industry and individuals, the paper analyses some elements of popular culture in three modernist novels written by Virginia Woolf – Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves. The aim is to emphasise the unconscious process of personal modifications of certain items bought or offered, advertisements, or public places, onto which the characters project their own deepest emotions and current thoughts. In addition, the paper–s goal is to reveal the overall importance of popular culture in the development of these novels as modernist. The analysis leads to some examples from the novels in which the heroes „create„ popular culture, thus trying to heal their own wounded souls, questioning the industrial items and identifying them with the objects of personal wishes, or using a popular public place as demanded by the needs of their own consciousness. The paper concludes that the elements of popular culture in these novels play a significant role, as, being created not only by the outer world, but mainly by an individual, popular culture contributes to a truer presentation of human consciousness – one of the greatest modernist ideals.