Virginia Woolf: dance, rhythm, movement

Abstract

Despite the rich cultural exchange between the arts in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly between dance and literature, the study of rhythm, movement, and dance has been relatively neglected in Woolf studies. Moving beyond the current critical focus on ballet, this thesis draws on Virginia Woolf’s biographies, diaries, essays, juvenilia, letters, and novels, alongside the socio-cultural history of dance and feminist theories of the body and gendered movement, to explore how Woolf’s use of physical expression, dance, and rhythmic variation might upend orthodox masculinity, patriarchal oppression, and social class hierarchies.

Chapter one looks at how Woolf employs circle- or couple-dances in The Voyage Out (1915) to explore embodiment, gender fluidity, and social control. Formally staid ballroom dance, regarded as a manifestation of patriarchy, is replaced with vibrant Bacchanalian movements that mirror modern dance’s focus on spontaneous, voluntary motion. Chapter two argues that Orlando’s ballet-inflected steps test the limits of conservative masculinity, embracing alternative forms. It goes on to consider the figure of the female Olympic ice-dancer as a possible source of inspiration for Princess Sasha Romanovich, whose fluid movement across the ice resists conformity. Chapter three delves into human/nonhuman dance-related movement in Flush: A Biography (1933), To the Lighthouse (1927) and The Waves (1931), examining how ingenious female artists breach gender boundaries by operating outside male-dominated models. Consequently, Woolf’s engagement with the nonhuman is less concerned with destabilising humanist values than with deepening her critique of gender inequality. The final chapter investigates how the foxtrot and embodied movement in The Years and Between the Acts (1941) critique social hierarchies, reflecting the novelist’s democratic response to elitism. As such, this thesis intervenes in, and contributes to, various debates in Woolf studies, offering fresh insights into Virginia Woolf’s engagement with embodiment, gender, and social politics.

Date of Award	Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Northern Ireland Department for the Economy
Supervisor	Alex Murray (Supervisor) & Justin Livingstone (Supervisor)