Titre
Rewriting the self: Virginia Woolf’s unconventional meta-life narrative
Domaine
Langues
Auteur.e.s
Adama BAMBA
Sitionbe Boniface KONE .
Résumé
This article investigates Woolf’s reflexive approach to autobiographical narrative as both a personal recollection
and a meta-commentary on the difficulty of representing the self. Virginia Woolf’s Sketch of the Past is not
merely an autobiographical account, it is also an investigation into the nature of memory, identity, and the act of
life writing itself. Here, she challenges traditional autobiographical structures by privileging her impressions
over chronology, introspection over event, and fragmentation over coherence. Her use of the term sketch signals
an intentional rejection of rigid narrative conventions, allowing her to explore the fluidity of memory and the
instability of identity. The text oscillates between autodiegetic and heterodiegetic modes of narration, revealing
Woolf’s shifting position as both subject and observer. Sketch of the Past stands as a meta-life narrative, which
invites readers to consider autobiography not as a fixed genre but as a space of experimentation, where the self is
continually examined through language, memory, and literary form.
Numéro
1 (10 - 2025)
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/akiri.v3i4.9
