TITLE:
The Study of the Restrained Experience in the Family Living Room Space from the Perspective of Women’s Affect-Virginia Woolf’s The Years
AUTHORS:
Shuxian Li
KEYWORDS:
The Years, Eleanor, Restrained Affects
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.12 No.9,
September
20,
2024
ABSTRACT: The novel The Years is Virginia Woolf’s penultimate work and the last complete novel she finished before her death. Although written in 1937, the story is set against the backdrop of the mid-Victorian era, reflecting the social context of that time. Spanning from the 1880s to the mid-1930s, the novel covers over fifty years of history, chronicling the lives of three generations of the Pargiter family. It employs a traditional narrative style rather than Woolf’s usual stream-of-consciousness technique to depict the growth of female characters. Previous research on The Years has largely focused on feminist perspectives, historical viewpoints, and coming-of-age themes, with minimal attention given to the emotional experiences of the female characters within the text. This paper aims to explore the restrained affects of Eleanor, the eldest daughter of the Pargiter family, to uncover the main causes behind these affects and how she reconciles with herself.