Methods of Continuing the Meaning in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" Novel

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
لیلا Rahmatian 1
Khalil Baygzade 2
Gholamreza Salemian 3
1 PhD student in Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University
2 Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University
3 Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University
10.29252/LRR.14.6.3
Abstract
The advent of meaning follows cognitive functions in active discourses of exteroception, enteroception, and Physical sense and perception in discourse. Accordingly, intellectual and perceptual-cognitive dimensions, which lead to the advent of meaning by cognitive functions, emotion and perception, have a significant role in creating and continuing meaning. These functions are considered effective to understand and perceive the meaning of signs and continuation of discourse. The current study aims to explain the techniques of meaning continuation and the interaction of sings and meaning in the novel to the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Applying a descriptive-analytical approach, the present study aims to figure out the techniques of meaning continuation in the aforesaid novel according to functions of cognitive, sensory-perceptual, emotional, and aesthetic discourse. The findings reveal that the techniques like the angle of view in cognitive dimension, sensory-visual in emotion demission and external perception, object-perception in emotional dimension, and the relationship between time and aesthetic discourse have created some signs whose interaction gets meanings continued through the discourses of to the lighthouse.



1. Introduction

Signs, in the breadth of narratives and within unique discourses, can reconstruct and transform the experiences of characters from various angles, thus contributing to the continuity of meaning. The discovery patterns of these signs in interaction with meaning in the narrative process result in the reconstruction and continuity of meaning. "The generative grammar model, originating from the studies of Vladimir Propp, is a dynamic model that illustrates the process of meaning renewal in a story. Based on this, it can be said that grammar successfully establishes a narrative discourse system or, in other words, standard semiotics" (Grami, 1987, translated by Shairi, 1389; 5). Therefore, meaning is not examined as a separate entity but is explored generatively throughout the narrative and story. Coexistence, parallelism, mutual divergence, transformation, and challenging of signs in interaction with each other in a generative process lead to the continuity of meaning. Based on this, signs always interpret meaning, and meaning manifests in signs.



2. Literature Review

The present research aims to elucidate the patterns of continuity of meaning and the interaction between signs and meaning in Virginia Woolf's novel "To the Lighthouse" using a descriptive-analytical approach. It seeks to answer which functions cognitive, sensory-perceptual, emotional, and aesthetic discourse serve in the studied novel and how they contribute to the continuity of discourse meaning.



3. Methodology

This research demonstrates that meaning is reproduced and sustained in shared yet different experiences of characters. Signs expand discourses in a dynamic chain of interaction with meaning, creating complex discourses by crossing temporal-spatial components from the mother's (initial) situation, which transform with aesthetic understanding governing discourse into a new positive situation, changing the discourse for movement towards a new positive situation. The dominant perspective in this narrative is the fluidity of the mind's stream. Woolf selects her subjects and gives direction to them, and this directionality connects her view with signs. Woolf's perspective promotes the diversity in creating different signs from one character to another, as if they all align in one direction but give meaning independently through different mental streams.



4. Results

Woolf broadens linguistic uses within various semantic ranges and, by creating understanding in narrative agents and comprehending the emotions and affections of characters, brings about the presence of the story's prominent figure (Mrs. Ramsay) in the discourse of different sign-semiotics functions. The clarity of the lighthouse's meaning, through the signs of maturity in the character of Lily, is continuously woven into the experiences of the two central female characters, granting a new lease of life to the different experiences of the story's central axis. Understanding meaning in the personal thoughts of characters and creating different codes for children and adults in the narrative process shows that various interactions in various social contexts do not limit and restrict the display of meaning in discourse. Instead, the narrative can impact the reconstruction of meaning solely in the hands of the interpreter beyond the recipient's interpretation. The research findings reveal that the continuity of meaning in the novel "To the Lighthouse" is subject to the cognitive, sensory-perceptual, emotional, and aesthetic functions in the cognitive dimension, the sensory-visual dimension, the physical-perceptual dimension, and the emotional discourse, and the relationship between time and aesthetics leads to the extraction of signs that, in interaction with each other, contribute to the continuity of meaning in the narrative.

Keywords

Subjects

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Language Related Research
Volume 14, Issue 6 - Serial Number 78
January and February 2023
Pages 77-104