Spectral Poetics in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

Abstract

This chapter examines the radical formal experimentation of Woolf’s most mystical novel, The Waves, looking at her creation of a remarkable ghostly aesthetic. It traces the largely unexplored literary dialogue with her contemporary T.S. Eliot and shows how Woolf’s poetic prose combines the literary supernatural with an intuitive personal mysticism. The chapter shows how Woolf’s vision of the ghostly is permeated by mythic elements of epic texts such as The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy, and draws out important parallels between the mystical strain of Woolf’s writing and ideas found in Indic philosophy. It looks at how Woolf redefines the trope of the ghost, moving away from its traditional associations with fear and death, connects to an older, sacred meaning of the term, which embodies both the earthly and otherworldly aspects of human existence.