ABSTRACT
Inasmuch as this book is an attempt to critique and move beyond other philosophical analyses of Woolf’s novels, Gadamer’s explanation of language provides the means of doing so. For Gadamer, language and the meaning of the world are one and the same: if one’s language is in constant development, then so too the world. Overall, then, language is one’s meaningful record of one’s interaction with the world. This chapter goes on to explain why and how language is so decisive for interpretation and understanding. It finishes with an analysis of language in the context of reading and writing as Woolf’s novels are examples of the written word, and they are meant to be read. Texts intensify and emphasize understanding and the identity of language. We are pushed to interpret texts because their resonance and implications are variable, with the identity of language at the heart of this action.
