Why Beauty Matters in Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse: The Importance of Aesthetic, Erotic, and Political Pauses
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Literary criticism of the past several decades has often downplayed the importance of beauty, pleasure, and aesthetic enchantment presented in Woolf’s writings. In reaction to the pervasive denigration of beauty in academic environments, political studies of Woolf have tried to emphasize the writer’s political achievements and extract political messages from the highly aesthetic surfaces of her texts by evading the question of beauty. However, the rejection of beauty when reading Woolf’s writings can prohibit readers from understanding the importance of the moments of beauty expressed in such aesthetic surfaces, which is the core achievement of this writer. My contention is that the scholarly evasion becomes an “escapist” act stemming from the fear that seeking beauty is an apolitical stance. As a matter of fact, the scenes of beauty included in Woolf’s writings serve to express pure aesthetic enchantment and pursuit of pleasure in the aesthetic subjects, who might be called “homo aestheticus,” referring to human individuals who pursue artistic activities for the fulfillment of essential human needs and for human survival. Simultaneously, the moments of beauty can encourage political activism by inviting readers to recognize the sociocultural terrain which becomes hostile to aesthetic subjects by forcing them to renounce their fascination with beauty and pleasure. By focusing on Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), distinguished by the writer’s portrayal of the aesthetic subjects, Clarissa Dalloway and Mrs. Ramsay, female protagonists who exhibit extreme fascination with beauty, this article reconsiders why beauty matters to them and articulates the aesthetic, erotic, and political significance of the moments.
Abstract
Literary criticism of the past several decades has often downplayed the importance of beauty, pleasure, and aesthetic enchantment presented in Woolf’s writings. In reaction to the pervasive denigration of beauty in academic environments, political studies of Woolf have tried to emphasize the writer’s political achievements and extract political messages from the highly aesthetic surfaces of her texts by evading the question of beauty. However, the rejection of beauty when reading Woolf’s writings can prohibit readers from understanding the importance of the moments of beauty expressed in such aesthetic surfaces, which is the core achievement of this writer. My contention is that the scholarly evasion becomes an “escapist” act stemming from the fear that seeking beauty is an apolitical stance. As a matter of fact, the scenes of beauty included in Woolf’s writings serve to express pure aesthetic enchantment and pursuit of pleasure in the aesthetic subjects, who might be called “homo aestheticus,” referring to human individuals who pursue artistic activities for the fulfillment of essential human needs and for human survival. Simultaneously, the moments of beauty can encourage political activism by inviting readers to recognize the sociocultural terrain which becomes hostile to aesthetic subjects by forcing them to renounce their fascination with beauty and pleasure. By focusing on Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), distinguished by the writer’s portrayal of the aesthetic subjects, Clarissa Dalloway and Mrs. Ramsay, female protagonists who exhibit extreme fascination with beauty, this article reconsiders why beauty matters to them and articulates the aesthetic, erotic, and political significance of the moments.
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