“I want to criticize the social system, and to show it at work, at its most intense.” Virginia Woolf’s provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics, since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the “poetic” novelist concerned with examining states of reverie and vision and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness. But Virginia Woolf was a realistic as well as a poetic novelist, a satirist and social critic as well as a visionary: literary critics’ cavalier dismissal of Woolf’s social vision will not withstand scrutiny.

In her novels, Woolf is deeply engaged by the questions of how individuals are shaped (or deformed) by their social environments, how historical forces impinge on people’s lives, how class, wealth, and gender help to determine people’s fates. Most of her novels are rooted in a realistically rendered social setting and in a precise historical time.

Woolf’s focus on society has not been generally recognized because of her intense antipathy to propaganda in art. The pictures of reformers in her novels are usually satiric or sharply critical. Even when Woolf is fundamentally sympathetic to their causes, she portrays people anxious to reform their society and possessed of a message or program as arrogant or dishonest, unaware of how their political ideas serve their own psychological needs. (Her Writer’s Diary notes: “the only honest people are the artists,” whereas “these social reformers and philanthropists… harbor… discreditable desires under the disguise of loving their kind…”) Woolf detested what she called “preaching” in fiction, too, and criticized novelist D. H. Lawrence (among others) for working by this method.

Woolf’s own social criticism is expressed in the language of observation rather than in direct commentary, since for her, fiction is a contemplative, not an active art. She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues; it is the reader’s work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view behind them. As a moralist, Woolf works by indirection, subtly undermining officially accepted mores, mocking, suggesting, calling into question, rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness: hers is the satirist’s art.

Woolf’s literary models were acute social observers like Chekhov and Chaucer. As she put it in The Common Reader, “It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another because of anything Chaucer said or wrote; and yet, as we read him, we are absorbing morality at every pore.” Like Chaucer, Woolf chose to understand as well as to judge, to know her society root and branch — a decision crucial in order to produce art rather than polemic.

1. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the text?

[A] Poetry and Satire as Influences on the Novels of Virginia Woolf.

[B] Virginia Woolf: Critic and Commentator on the Twentieth-Century Novel.

[C] Trends in Contemporary Reform Movements as a Key to Understanding Virginia Woolf’s Novels.

[D] Virginia Woolf’s Novels: Critical Reflections on the Individual and on Society.

2. In the first paragraph of the text, the author’s attitude toward the literary critics mentioned can best be described as

[A] disparaging.

[B] ironic.

[C] facetious.

[D] skeptical but resigned.

3. It can be inferred from the text that Woolf chose Chaucer as a literary example because she believed that

[A] Chaucer was the first English author to focus on society as a whole as well as on individual characters.

[B] Chaucer was an honest and forthright author, whereas novelists like D. H. Lawrence did not sincerely wish to change society.

[C] Chaucer was more concerned with understanding his society than with calling its accepted mores into question.

[D] Chaucer’s writing was greatly, if subtly, effective in influencing the moral attitudes of his readers.

4. It can be inferred from the text that the most probable reason Woolf realistically described the social setting in the majority of her novels was that she

[A] was aware that contemporary literary critics considered the novel to be the most realistic of literary genres.

[B] was interested in the effect of a person’s social milieu on his or her character and actions.

[C] needed to be as attentive to detail as possible in her novels in order to support the arguments she advanced in them.

[D] wanted to show that a painstaking fidelity in the representation of reality did not in any way hamper the artist.

5. Which of the following phrases best expresses the sense of the word “contemplative” as it is used in line 2, paragraph 4 of the text?

[A] Gradually elucidating the rational structures underlying accepted mores.

[B] Reflecting on issues in society without prejudice or emotional commitment.

[C] Avoiding the aggressive assertion of the author’s perspective to the exclusion of the reader’s judgment.

[D] Conveying a broad view of society as a whole rather than focusing on an isolated individual consciousness.

[答案与考点解析]

1. 【答案】D

【考点解析】这是一道中心主旨题。本文的中心主旨句在首段的尾句，结合每段的主题句，我们可以推断出本文是在讲“Virginia Woolf”的小说以及其小说对个人与社会之间的关系进行的相关阐述。可见本题的正确选项应该是反映上述内容的选项D。考生在解题时应注意全文的中心主旨句以及每段的主题句之间的相互关系。

2. 【答案】A

【考点解析】本题是一道细节推导题。题干中的“literary critics”暗示本题的答案信息来源应该在首段的尾句，通过对本句的阅读与理解可推断出本文作者对“literary critics”的态度是否定的，故选项A应该是本题的正确选项。本题的选项D因为“resigned”(屈从的，顺从的)一词而不能成为本题的正确选项，因为原文中并没有包含这方面的意思。考生在解题时一定要认真理解原文的每一个单词。

3. 【答案】D

【考点解析】这是一道句间关系题。通过题干中的“Chaucer”一词可迅速将本题的答案信息确定在尾段的首句。通过阅读尾段的第一句和第二句，我们可以推断出本题的正确选项应该是突出“morality”含义的选项D。考生在解题时一定要考虑到上下句之间的联系。

4. 【答案】B

【考点解析】这是一道句间关系题。通过题干中的“realistically”和“social setting”可将本题的答案信息来源迅速确定在第二段的尾句，通过阅读和理解第二段中仅有的两个句子，我们可以推断出本题的正确选项应该是突出“人的社会环境影响人的性格和行为”之含义的选项B。考生在解题时一定要重视上下句之间的相互联系。

5. 【答案】C

【考点解析】本题是一道词汇理解题。本题的题干以将本题的答案信息来源确定在第四段的第一句。如果考生不认识“contemplative”这个词，可以通过这个词前后的语意关系以及第四段第二句所表达的内容进行推导。通过仔细阅读第四段的第一、二句，我们可以推断出本题的正确选项应该是C，因为该选项强调的是回避“direct commentary”(直接的评论)，不做“active art”(主动的艺术)，让读者自己去思考。考生在解题时应该注意原文中所表达的对立对比关系。

[参考译文]

“我要批判社会体制，揭示出它在最为紧要的关头是如何运作的。”弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙在谈及她写作《达勒维夫人》的意图时令人深思的言论，常常为批评家们所忽视，因为它着重突出了她文学兴趣的一个方面，而这一方面与这位“诗意”小说家的一贯形象大相径庭，她一贯所关注的是审视人们梦想与幻觉的种种状态，并沿着个人意识的复杂路径追寻。但弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙是一位“诗意”小说家也是一个现实主义者，是一个空想家也是一个讽刺作家和社会批评家，对于伍尔芙的社会空想，文学批评家们傲慢地忽视伍尔芙的社会批判的做法是经不起推敲的。

伍尔芙在其小说中全力探讨如下问题：社会环境是如何塑造个人的(或是使人堕落的)，历史发展的推动力是如何冲击人们生活的，阶级、财产和性别是如何在决定人生命运中发挥作用的。她的大部分小说植根于现实主义营造的社会背景中，并发生在某一精确的历史时期。

因为伍尔芙对艺术宣传十分厌恶，所以她对社会的关注并未得到普遍认可。在她的小说中，改革者的形象通常是具有讽刺性的或是带有尖锐的批判色彩。即使有时伍尔芙本质上对他们的事业怀有同情心，但她还是将急于改革社会的，怀揣救世咨文或是纲领的人塑造成傲慢自大而又不够诚实的形象，并还没有意识到其政治主张是如何为满足个人的心理私欲而服务的。(她在《作家日记》中写道：“唯有艺术家是诚实的人，”而“这些社会改革家和慈善家们……将可耻的欲望隐藏在热爱人类的假面之后……”)伍尔芙还痛恨在小说中应用所谓的“说教”，对应用这一理论进行创作的小说家D. H.劳伦斯(及其他作家)进行了批评。

伍尔芙将自己的社会批判以观察的语言而不是直接的评论来表现，因为对她而言，小说是一门沉思凝想的艺术而非一门积极干预生活的艺术。她对社会及社会性问题所表现出来的现象加以描述，并提供材料让人们作出评论。读者要做的才是将这些观察所得的资料综合起来，并体会出隐含其中的连贯的观点。作为一名道德家，伍尔芙间接而巧妙地对那些公认的伦理道德进行攻击，她嘲讽、暗示、质疑，而不是下论断，鼓吹自己的观点，或是充当见证：她的作品是讽刺作家的艺术。

伍尔芙的文学楷模是像契诃夫和乔叟那样敏锐的社会观察家。正如她在《普通读者》中表述的，“完全可以说，还没有因为乔叟说了什么或写了什么而制定出一项法律或是建起一块石碑;但当我们在阅读他的作品时，却会全身心地汲取其道德思想。”正如乔叟一样，伍尔芙选择去理解判断，去彻底了解她所置身的社会——去创造艺术而不是争论性文章，这才是至关重要的决定