The Garden as a Place of Rapture: Reading Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, and Clarice Lispector
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper investigates four moments in modernist literature where female characters encounter non-human spaces, which can be read as a reimagining of the patriarchal narrative of origin in the Book of Genesis. In two of Virginia Woolf’s novels, To the Lighthouse (1927) and Between the Acts (1941), as well as in Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Bliss” (1920), the characters face a pear tree, while in the short story “Love” (1960), by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, a moment of surprise takes the main character to the Botanical Garden. These experiences of rapture lead to a displacement in their lives and a creative opening to the reader through art.
Author: Marcela Filizola
Institution: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4411368868