Walking in the Modernist short story 1914 - 1939

Woods, Maggie (2025). Walking in the Modernist short story 1914 - 1939. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the significance and narrative effect of walking by characters in the short stories written by Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth Bowen between 1914 - 1939. The thesis builds a link across their short stories through analysing their writing of walking and the purpose that it serves in the narrative of each writer. It is argued that walking in the modernist short story facilitates an insight into the content and meaning of the walker's accompanying thought which informs the reader's understanding of their motives and behaviour. Walking creates spaces in the narrative which can be filled with characters' thought, reflection, memory, ideas and a response to events or circumstances. It is more than an narrative device to move a character to another setting because it provides the opportunity to simultaneously include and explore their thinking. This reflects the human experience of the mind which is always working so that passing time is used to develop understanding, experience emotion, respond to experience and shape decisions. In the modernist short story a walker's hidden thoughts accompanied by concealed emotion can provide an insight into their character and behaviour. The ongoing thought process includes reflection on the present or recall of earlier events and feelings while also anticipating the future through imagination so that it is working across past, present and future time.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):