Virginia Wolf and its approach to classical culture

Abstract

This essay wants to explore Virginia Woolf”s relationship with the classical authors. The starting point is her education as a young woman, based on family readings and private classes. This information can be specially found in her diaries and personal letters; to finish we will examine the different echoes of this classical education in her vast literary production focusing on The Voyage Out, Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and The Years. Virginia Woolf was, since adolescence, attracted by the classical world (mainly the Greek language and the classical Greek tragedians), but due to her initial approach, far from any academicism, she also tended to refuse it as we can see in her many reproaches to professors and male scholars. Furthermore, her opinion about translation can also be interesting; it is a solution which is finally seen as a lesser evil.