Buddhist Modernism Embodied in To the Lighthouse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/cay74m32Keywords:
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, Buddhist Modernism, MandalaAbstract
Buddhism’s entry into the West was not presented in the original religious form, but in the form of what David L. McMahan called the concept of Buddhist modernism. Based on this theory, this article explores the Buddhist thoughts contained in Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse. It believes that from the central image of Mrs. Ramsay, to the collapse of family order, to Lily’s self-reconstruction, the mandala correspondence structure in Buddhism has been built. At the same time, Woolf's narrative skills and application make the concept of time in the novel dialogue with the discussion of impermanence and momentariness in Buddhism. This paper aims to analyze the Buddhist thoughts embodied in the narrative technique, character dynamics, theme expression and other aspects of the work, and examine how Woolf conveys the reference and innovation of oriental philosophy through these elements, so as to build a unique spiritual world.
Downloads
References
[1] McMahan, D. L. (2008). The making of Buddhist modernism. Oxford University Press.
[2] Kane, J. (1995). Varieties of mystical experience in the writings of Virginia Woolf. Twentieth Century Literature, 41(4), 328 349.
[3] Normand, L., & Winch, A. (Eds.). (2013). Encountering Buddhism in twentieth century British and American literature. Bloomsbury Academic.
[4] Zhang, D. (2021). Stream of consciousness. In A. E. Fernald (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Virginia Woolf (pp. 133 148). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10. 1093/ oxfordhb/ 9780198830584.013.8.
[5] Ammar Guirat, H. (2020). Impersonality theory as spatial imagination in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Literary Imagination, 22(1), 42 57.
[6] Smith, A. (1999). Shifts in “Prelude” and To the Lighthouse. In Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf: A public of two (pp. 91 110). Oxford University Press.
[7] Scheck, D. (2011). Sundered waters: Isolated consciousnesses and ostensible communion in Woolf’s narration. In Virginia Woolf and the natural world: Selected papers from the Twentieth Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf (pp. 208 213). Clemson University Digital Press.
[8] Banfield, A. (2000). The phantom table: Woolf, Fry, Russell and the epistemology of modernism. Cambridge University Press.
[9] Beer, G. (1996). Virginia Woolf: The common ground: Essays. University of Michigan Press.
[10] Simone, E. (2017). Virginia Woolf and being in the world: A Heideggerian study. Edinburgh University Press.
[11] Groover, K. K. (2019). Religion, secularism, and the spiritual paths of Virginia Woolf. Palgrave Macmillan.
[12] Griesinger, E. (2019). Quaker mysticism and Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. In K. K. Groover (Ed.), Religion, secularism, and the spiritual paths of Virginia Woolf (pp. 131 150). Palgrave Macmillan.
[13] James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology (Vols. 1 2). Henry Holt and Company.
[14] Catalano, N. (2016). Beyond the self: Identity, impermanence, and the meanings of life in the novels of Virginia Woolf [Honors thesis]. University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
[15] Henry, S. J. (2023). Virginia Woolf in the river: The intersection of relativity and modern Buddhism in Mrs. Dalloway. International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, 12(1), Article 12, 1 9. https://doi. org/ 10. 7710/2168 0620.0311.
[16] Brauen, M. (1997). Mandala: Sacred circle in Tibetan Buddhism. Shambhala.
[17] Woolf, V. (2006). To the lighthouse (D. Bradshaw, Ed.). Oxford University Press.
[18] Hanner, O. (2021). Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (Treasury of metaphysics with self commentary). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. https://doi.org/10. 1093/acrefore/ 9780195340301.013.1342.
[19] Vasubandhu. (1988 1990). Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam (L. M. Pruden, Trans., Vols. 1 4). Asian Humanities Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Education and Educational Research
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
