PRIVATE AND COMMON GROUND: THE WORK OF LING SHUHUA AND VIRGINIA WOOLF IN THE LATE 1930S

Abstract

This thesis takes as its starting point the correspondence between modernist women writers Virginia Woolf and Ling Shuhua in the late 1930s. Woolf’s informal literary mentorship nourished Ling’s only work written in English. Studying Ling’s Ancient Melodies (1953) and Woolf’s Between the Acts (1941), works embarked on during their correspondence, I show how these texts demonstrate their belief in English Literature as “common ground” and their refusal to subject their art to political and social demands. Their texts register a resistance to literary trends brought about by national crises in China and England during the 1930s. Studying the reception of Ling’s work in England during the 1950s, I also reveal a troubling situation of misreading. Examining historical and social circumstances unique to England, I show how the presence of national barriers on the ground of English Literature impedes common understanding.