Memory and engulfment in Clarissa's and Septimus's psyche in Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway

Abstract

In my thesis I am going to analyse how the two distorted ways of recalling the past: trauma and nostalgia result in engulfment for the two protagonists, Septimus and Clarissa. In Chapter 1 the definition of engulfment and its basic consequences to the individual will be dealt with. In Chapter 2 Clarissa and Septimus will be examined in terms of their shared double mental disorder. In Chapter 3 nostalgia and trauma as the two alternatives to remember will be discussed.