A woman's college from the outside

Based on Virginia Woolf's short story

Author

Virginia Woolf

Year of publication

1926

Setting

 Newnham College: a private college only for women in the courts of Cambridge.

Main themes

Independence, class, gender inequality, chastity and the subjectivity of Angela.

Symbols

Colors, day and night, mirrors and the laughter.

Narrator

Told from the point of view of an unnamed third person narrator known as a heterodiegetic narrator.

Slice of life story

A narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence of events in a character's life is presented, often lacking plot development, conflict and exposition, as well as often having an open ending. In fact, it is an expression of the momentary and fragmentary nature of experience, and it depicts a part or a moment in the life of a character. A slide of life story is the equivalent of Impressionism in painting.

Free indirect style

A style of third-person narration which uses some of the characteristics of third person along with the essence of first-person direct speech, described as a "technique of presenting a character's voice partly mediated by the voice of the author", that is, "that the character speaks through the voice of the narrator". It aims at conveying a mode of thinking and feeling from the inside, without the explicitness of direct speech, reported speech, or authorial summary.

Epiphany

A moment of sudden and great revelation or realization that stems from a visionary moment or the insight of grace. It is a symbol of spiritual state and the most delicate and evanescent of moments

Conceit

A type of figurative language in which the writer establishes and elaborate comparison between two very different concepts or objects. It is an specific use of extended metaphor and it often uses juxtaposition, or similes to create and enhance the comparison.

Steam of consciousness

A narrative technique in non dramatic fiction that represents the full richness, speed and subtlety of the mind at work, It is not a chain of organized logic thought, or a ladder of thought leading to a definite conclusion but a disorganized mass of impressions over which the brain has no control. They are snatches of incoherent thought, ungrammatical constructions and free association of ideas, images and words at pre-speech level.