Virginia Woolf, Science, Radio, and Identity PDF
Preview Virginia Woolf, Science, Radio, and Identity
VIRGINIA WOOLF, SCIENCE, RADIO, AND IDENTITY This book offers an extensive analysis of Woolf’s engagement with science.Itdemonstratesthatscienceisintegraltotheconstructionof identity in Woolf’s novels of the s and s, and identifies a little-exploredsourceforWoolf’sscientificknowledge:BBCscientific radio broadcasts. By analysing this unstudied primary material, it traces the application of scientific concepts to questions of identity and highlights a single concept that is shared across multiple disci- plines in the modernist period: the idea that modern science undermines individualistic conceptions of the self. It broadens our understandingoftherelationshipbetweenmodernismandradio,and modernismandscience,anddemonstratestheimportanceofscience toWoolf’s later novels. ’ work has appeared in Women: A Cultural Review, Woolf Studies Annual, and the Journal of Literature andScience.Sheco-organizedtheBritishSocietyforLiterature and Science Winter Symposium, and was awarded an Honourable MentionintheJournalofLiteratureandScience/BSLSEssayPrizein . VIRGINIA WOOLF, SCIENCE, RADIO, AND IDENTITY CATRIONA LIVINGSTONE IndependentScholar UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia –,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India PenangRoad,#-/,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ :./ ©CatrionaLivingstone Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData :Livingstone,Catriona,-author. :VirginiaWoolf,science,radio,andidentity/CatrionaLivingstone. :Cambridge,UnitedKingdom:CambridgeUniversityPress,.|Includesbiblio- graphicalreferencesandindex. :(print)|(ebook)| (hardback)|(paperback)|(epub) ::Woolf,Virginia,-–Criticismandinterpretation.|Englishliterature–th century–Historyandcriticism.|Englishliterature–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism.|Science inliterature.|Physicsinliterature.|Quantumtheoryinliterature.|Radioinliterature.|Identity (Psychology)inliterature.|Literatureandscience–England.|BISAC:LITERARYCRITICISM/ WomenAuthors :.Z(print)|.(ebook)|/.– dc LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/ LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/ ----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents Image page vi Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations ix Introduction Cross-DisciplinaryResonances ScienceontheAirwaves WoolfandScience Schrödinger’s Woolf: Quantum Physics and Identity RaysaroundaPoint:Wave–ParticleDuality ‘ItsBeamStrikesMe’:Schrödinger’sWaveFunction ‘WeRippleinLight’:InsubstantialSelves Conclusion:ExperimentalIdentities ‘Unity–Dispersity’: Neurological Communities ThreadsandFragments:TheIntegrativeActionoftheNervousSystem TheEvolutionaryNervousSystem SympatheticVibrations Conclusion:WoolfandEcology ‘Our Senses Have Widened’: Woolf and Radio RadioSelves TheListener Tigers under Our Hats: Alternative Evolutionary Identities HalfMaid,HalfMastodon:ComparativeAnatomy ‘EmbryoLives’:RecapitulationTheory ‘UnactedParts’:CreativeEvolution Conclusion Bibliography Index v Image . The diffraction pattern produced when a beam of electrons traverses a mass of gold crystals page vi Acknowledgements A book, like a self, involves the participation of many beings, and in writingthisoneIhavedrawnupontheinsightandwisdomofamultitude of other minds. Most of all, every page owes something to my PhD supervisor, Anna Snaith. I find it impossible to imagine where this book would be without her unfailingly kind guidance, both during my studies and since their completion. Especial thanks to my examiners, Michael Whitworth and Christina Alt,fortheirinsightfulcommentsduringmyviva,andtheirgeneroushelp in guiding this project along the difficult road from thesis to monograph. Thanks to my intellectually generous cohort of PhD students at King’s CollegeLondonandtomembersoftheEnglishdepartment,especiallyJon Day and Max Saunders, for helping to frame the project during its early stages. This book has benefited enormously from multiple discussions with members of the academic community, particularly attendees of the International Conference on Virginia Woolf, and members of the British SocietyforLiteratureandScience.ParticularthankstoRachelCrossland– who, like me, occupies the small overlap between those two communities – for her infectious enthusiasm and for many illuminating conversations. SeveralparagraphsoftheIntroductionofthisbookarederivedfroman article published in Women: A Cultural Review (Vol. , ), copyright Taylor & Francis, available online: www.tandfonline.com/./ ...SeveralparagraphsofChapterhavepreviously beenpublishedinWoolfStudiesAnnual(Vol.,),copyright© byPaceUniversityPress,ParkRow,thFloor,Rm.,NewYork, NY . All rights reserved. A substantial section of Chapter has previously appeared in the Journal of Literature and Science (Vol. , ), and I am particularly grateful to the editor, Martin Willis, for his help with this section. Thanks, too, to the staff at the British Library and the BBC Written Archives Centre, especially Matthew Chipping. vii viii Acknowledgements As I have discovered over the past months, an academic monograph is anentirelydifferentbeastfromaPhDthesis,andIamverygratefultothe three anonymousreaderswhohaveprovideddetailedcommentaryonthis book at various stages. Their considered, constructive responses have enormously enriched the final work. Huge thanks too to the editorial and production staff at Cambridge University Press, especially Ray Ryan, Edgar Mendez, Liz Davey, and Dhanuja Ragunathan, and to Matthew Seal for his careful copyediting. Thislistofacknowledgementswouldbeincompletewithoutamention of the teachers who, through the years, have enriched my relationship to literature. Special thanks toMichael Whitworthand TomMacFaulat the UniversityofOxford,AnthonyTrevelyanatAquinasCollegeinStockport, Mrs Winters at Bramhall High School, and Mrs Hamilton at Queensgate Primary School. Thanks, too, to my A-Level Physics teacher, Steven Taylor,forintroducingmetotheintriguingconceptsofquantumphysics. There are people with whom your identity is so entangled that any acknowledgement is insufficient. Thanks to my family, especially Mary andJonathanTotman,andtomypartner,RebeccaTye,forthesharedlife ofwhich,evenafternineyears,Iamcontinuallyastonishedandoverjoyed tobeapart.Finally,tomyparents,DeeLivingstoneandPaulWatkins,for encouraging me to pursue my interests in literature and the sciences; for their unceasing sympathy and support; for so many reasons that run too deep to form part of any list – all my love and thanks.
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