Table Of ContentVIRGINIA WOOLF, SCIENCE, RADIO,
AND IDENTITY
This book offers an extensive analysis of Woolf’s engagement with
science.Itdemonstratesthatscienceisintegraltotheconstructionof
identity in Woolf’s novels of the s and s, and identifies a
little-exploredsourceforWoolf’sscientificknowledge:BBCscientific
radio broadcasts. By analysing this unstudied primary material, it
traces the application of scientific concepts to questions of identity
and highlights a single concept that is shared across multiple disci-
plines in the modernist period: the idea that modern science
undermines individualistic conceptions of the self. It broadens our
understandingoftherelationshipbetweenmodernismandradio,and
modernismandscience,anddemonstratestheimportanceofscience
toWoolf’s later novels.
’ work has appeared in Women: A
Cultural Review, Woolf Studies Annual, and the Journal of Literature
andScience.Sheco-organizedtheBritishSocietyforLiterature
and Science Winter Symposium, and was awarded an Honourable
MentionintheJournalofLiteratureandScience/BSLSEssayPrizein
.
VIRGINIA WOOLF, SCIENCE,
RADIO, AND IDENTITY
CATRIONA LIVINGSTONE
IndependentScholar
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century–Historyandcriticism.|Englishliterature–Womenauthors–Historyandcriticism.|Science
inliterature.|Physicsinliterature.|Quantumtheoryinliterature.|Radioinliterature.|Identity
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Contents
Image page vi
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction
Cross-DisciplinaryResonances
ScienceontheAirwaves
WoolfandScience
Schrödinger’s Woolf: Quantum Physics and Identity
RaysaroundaPoint:Wave–ParticleDuality
‘ItsBeamStrikesMe’:Schrödinger’sWaveFunction
‘WeRippleinLight’:InsubstantialSelves
Conclusion:ExperimentalIdentities
‘Unity–Dispersity’: Neurological Communities
ThreadsandFragments:TheIntegrativeActionoftheNervousSystem
TheEvolutionaryNervousSystem
SympatheticVibrations
Conclusion:WoolfandEcology
‘Our Senses Have Widened’: Woolf and Radio
RadioSelves
TheListener
Tigers under Our Hats: Alternative Evolutionary Identities
HalfMaid,HalfMastodon:ComparativeAnatomy
‘EmbryoLives’:RecapitulationTheory
‘UnactedParts’:CreativeEvolution
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
v
Image
. The diffraction pattern produced when a beam
of electrons traverses a mass of gold crystals page
vi
Acknowledgements
A book, like a self, involves the participation of many beings, and in
writingthisoneIhavedrawnupontheinsightandwisdomofamultitude
of other minds. Most of all, every page owes something to my PhD
supervisor, Anna Snaith. I find it impossible to imagine where this book
would be without her unfailingly kind guidance, both during my studies
and since their completion.
Especial thanks to my examiners, Michael Whitworth and Christina
Alt,fortheirinsightfulcommentsduringmyviva,andtheirgeneroushelp
in guiding this project along the difficult road from thesis to monograph.
Thanks to my intellectually generous cohort of PhD students at King’s
CollegeLondonandtomembersoftheEnglishdepartment,especiallyJon
Day and Max Saunders, for helping to frame the project during its early
stages.
This book has benefited enormously from multiple discussions with
members of the academic community, particularly attendees of the
International Conference on Virginia Woolf, and members of the British
SocietyforLiteratureandScience.ParticularthankstoRachelCrossland–
who, like me, occupies the small overlap between those two communities
– for her infectious enthusiasm and for many illuminating conversations.
SeveralparagraphsoftheIntroductionofthisbookarederivedfroman
article published in Women: A Cultural Review (Vol. , ), copyright
Taylor & Francis, available online: www.tandfonline.com/./
...SeveralparagraphsofChapterhavepreviously
beenpublishedinWoolfStudiesAnnual(Vol.,),copyright©
byPaceUniversityPress,ParkRow,thFloor,Rm.,NewYork,
NY . All rights reserved. A substantial section of Chapter has
previously appeared in the Journal of Literature and Science (Vol. ,
), and I am particularly grateful to the editor, Martin Willis, for his
help with this section. Thanks, too, to the staff at the British Library and
the BBC Written Archives Centre, especially Matthew Chipping.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
As I have discovered over the past months, an academic monograph is
anentirelydifferentbeastfromaPhDthesis,andIamverygratefultothe
three anonymousreaderswhohaveprovideddetailedcommentaryonthis
book at various stages. Their considered, constructive responses have
enormously enriched the final work. Huge thanks too to the editorial
and production staff at Cambridge University Press, especially Ray Ryan,
Edgar Mendez, Liz Davey, and Dhanuja Ragunathan, and to Matthew
Seal for his careful copyediting.
Thislistofacknowledgementswouldbeincompletewithoutamention
of the teachers who, through the years, have enriched my relationship to
literature. Special thanks toMichael Whitworthand TomMacFaulat the
UniversityofOxford,AnthonyTrevelyanatAquinasCollegeinStockport,
Mrs Winters at Bramhall High School, and Mrs Hamilton at Queensgate
Primary School. Thanks, too, to my A-Level Physics teacher, Steven
Taylor,forintroducingmetotheintriguingconceptsofquantumphysics.
There are people with whom your identity is so entangled that any
acknowledgement is insufficient. Thanks to my family, especially Mary
andJonathanTotman,andtomypartner,RebeccaTye,forthesharedlife
ofwhich,evenafternineyears,Iamcontinuallyastonishedandoverjoyed
tobeapart.Finally,tomyparents,DeeLivingstoneandPaulWatkins,for
encouraging me to pursue my interests in literature and the sciences; for
their unceasing sympathy and support; for so many reasons that run too
deep to form part of any list – all my love and thanks.
