Woolf's Modern Fiction (Greenblatt, 2006, pp. 2430-34) attempts to define the course of literary history. She mentions the quarreling between Mr. Wells, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Glasworthy who opened the minds of the readers to new ideas, while adhering to the Victorian tradition of writing novels, and each believed the external environment inspired many a writer. Woolf considered these three to be materialists because "they are not concerned with the spirit but with the body" and their writings are filled with things she considered unimportant. Moreover, she states, "they left us with the feeling that the sooner English fiction turns it back upon them, as politely as may be, and marches, if only into the desert, the better for its soul." These types of writings are devoid of the life and the spirit we see in their predecessors, and its essence has turned toward the superficial, missing the importance of life's realities. (p. 2430)
Woolf believes the writer should turn inward, to be introspective in his or her writing, that materialism doesn't capture reality. Thus, the writer is free to write about whatever they choose, regardless of the style one chooses to write, i.e. comedy or tragedy. The essence, the reality, is in the writers mind and perceptions. Woolf also believed the purpose of the writer is to delve deep into the human unconscious. Writers such as Joyce and Conrad, in her opinion, display this in their writing and even in their stories, i.e., Ulysses, although it may appear fragmented, contains a feeling of spirit or life.
She adds,
"In contrast with those we call materialists, Mr. Joyce is spiritual; he is concerned at all costs to reveal the flickering of that innermost flame which flashes it messages through the brain, and in order to preserve it, he disregards with complete courage whatever seems to him adventitious, whether it be probability or coherence, or any other of these signposts for which generations have served to support the imagination of a reader when called upon to imagine what he can do neither touch nor see." (p. 2432)
Life is not a series of tales, but of moments and it is these moments that mark the psychological factors of the mind, in its stream of consciousness. Woolf notices that in Russian literature, especially where Chechov is concerned with not only exploring the mind, but also the heart. She states, "If we are sick of our own materialism. . . .let this sympathy be not with the mind - for it is easy with the mind - but with the heart, with love towards them." (p. 2434)
Thus, Woolf concludes, The proper stuff of fiction does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction; every feeling, every thought, every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon us, no perception comes amiss. And if we can imagine the art of fiction come alive and standing in our midst, she would undoubtedly bid us break her and bully her, as well as honor and love her, for so her youth is renewed and her sovereignty assured. (p. 3434)
Work Cited:
Greenblatt, S. et al. (Eds.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature: The Romantic Period through the twentieth Century and After. (8th ed., Vol. B). 2006. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.