Conceptual Symbolic Narration in Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse and The Waves from a Reader-response perspective

Abstract

This study examines conceptual, symbolic narration in Virginia Woolf’s; To The Lighthouse and The Waves. The study applies the reader-response critical approach to explain the significance of Woolf’s metaphoric narration in achieving specific interactions and meanings within her readers’ minds. Firstly, it sorts out symbolic language in the two novels to figure out how readers receive them. The analysis shows the heavy use of conceptualized symbolic language to achieve particular meanings and create thematic responses. Secondly, the study clarifies the effect of the conceptual, symbolic narration in revealing the technical aspects in the novels both at the literal meaning and at the symbolic meaning. Thus, the study aims at explaining how the conceptual, symbolic narration plays a functional role in achieving reader-responses to enhance thematic purposes and ideas intended by the writer.