I am writing my final research paper on the primary text of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”. I plan to also use Woolf’s essay “Modern Fiction” to discuss the work she does in “Mrs. Dalloway”. I found four secondary sources to employ in my research paper, which I have listed with some details below. I searched a few locations including Google, JSTOR, ResearchGate, and OneSearch. I mainly used key word searches such as “Mrs. Dalloway and Feminism”, “Narrative and Mrs. Dalloway”, and other key words such as social structure and system. I used Onesearch after I was linked to a chapter from Lisa Colletta’s book and was able to attain the chapter with interlibrary loan. After completing this annotated bibliography, I realize I may need one or two more secondary sources to build my paper so I plan to look for a few more that will support the gender issues I want to talk about.

Edmondson, Annalee. “Narrativizing Characters in Mrs. Dalloway.” Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 36, no. 1, 2012, pp. 17–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/ jmodelite.36.1.17. Accessed 22 Apr. 2021.

In Edmondson’s essay discusses the big theme of “Mrs. Dalloway”, public versus private. Edmondson’s argument focuses on Woolf’s use of intersubjectivity and how that contributes to Woolf’s characterization and narrative in the novel and the exploration of public versus private minds and being. I intend to employ this essay to discuss how Woolf goes about narrativizing her characters, why she does this, and why she is successful. This essay will help me illustrate how Woolf uses her characters narratives to move the plot along. 

“Criticizing the Social System: ‘Mrs. Dalloway’, Virginia Woolf’s Dark Comedy of Manners.” Dark Humor and Social Satire in the Modern British Novel, by Lisa Colletta, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, pp. 37–57. 

In Chapter 2 of Colletta’s book “Dark Humor and Social Satire in the Modern British Novel” she discusses Virginia Woolf with a focus on “Mrs. Dalloway”, exploring Woolf’s use of dark humor or gallows-humor and the novels’ function of social satire. I want to utilize this chapter of Colletta’s book to discuss and contextualize the social issues that Woolf engages with in “Mrs. Dalloway”.  

“Mrs. Dalloway’s Postwar Elegy.” Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde: War, Civilization, Modernity, by Christine Froula, Columbia University Press, 2006. 

Froula’s chapter on “Mrs. Dalloway” discusses the novel as a “postwar elegy”. Froula explains why she believes that Woolf’s novel is a postwar elegy and supports her claim with evidence from “Mrs. Dalloway” and other writings from Woolf including both her fiction and nonfiction. Froula dissects “Mrs. Dalloway”, she examines the artistic choices that Woolf makes in the novel and juxtaposes aspects of Woolf’s life with aspects of “Mrs. Dalloway” in an effort to explain the grandiose work that Woolf is doing. This chapter provides context into why Woolf characterizes her characters in the way that she does and what she is attempting to portray, which will be helpful in my final paper as I want to discuss the society that Woolf is depicting in the novel. In particular I want to use Froula’s chapter to explain “Mrs. Dalloway” as a response to the war, though the main character seems unaffected by the war. 

Montashery, Iraj. (2012). A Feminist Reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature. 1. 22-28. 10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.3p.22.  

In this short article Montashery analyzes “Mrs. Dalloway” from a feminist point of view, bringing in the critical theory written by many famous feminist writers. Montashery examines Clarissa’s complex identity in order to evaluate her ideologies regarding gender and social constructs. There were very few articles that explicitly discuss feminism and “Mrs. Dalloway” but this one will help me to discuss the novel through the scope of feminism which I believe Woolf is engaging with. This article will help me discuss the social context of the gender inequality that Woolf includes in “Mrs. Dalloway”.  

“Modern Fiction” by Virginia Woolf from McNeille, Andrew, Ed. The Essays of Virginia Woolf. Volume 4: 1925 to 1928. London: The Hogarth Press, 1984.

In this essay, Woolf critiques materialists and the subjects that they chose to explore in their work. In “Modern Fiction” Woolf discusses a new kind of writing that she thinks is the future of modern literature, where the subject explored has a spiritual focus. “Mrs. Dalloway” is exactly the type of writing that Woolf expresses a desire for in her essay. I intend to employ this short essay from Woolf to show her engagement with modernist ideas in “Mrs. Dalloway”  and why she crafts the novel in the way she does.