Chapter 23 Virginia Woolf's Fiction Theory
British female writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is a representative writer of "stream of consciousness" novels and a very important western literary critic.She is a special contributor to important British and American newspapers such as "Times Literary Supplement" and "Atlantic Monthly". She has published more than 350 book reviews and papers in her life.The range of her reviews is extremely wide, including essays, novels, biographies, letters, poetry and treatises.The writers involved in her comments range from Aeschylus in ancient Greece to Sinclair Lewis in the 20th century, including important writers of various genres in Britain, America, France, Russia and other countries.It is quite difficult to outline the theory of such a broad critic in the limited space.Woolf's comments focus on novels, so this article only touches on her theory of novels.This article adopts the method of commentary, first quoting Woolf's original text, so that readers can directly understand her main viewpoints and criticism methods, and then analyze and evaluate.
The main stage of Woolf's literary criticism activities was after the First World War.War not only destroys the bodies of millions of people, but also destroys the hearts of hundreds of millions of people.Traditional moral concepts and rational philosophy have also been smashed by artillery fire, and they are no longer people's spiritual pillars.After the Great War, followed by the victory of the October Revolution, the climax of the labor movement in various countries from 1918 to 1923, and the unprecedented severe economic crisis from 1929 to 1933, the entire capital The socialist world is in turmoil.Thus, Woolf said: "We are clearly in a time when we are not firmly fixed where we stand; things change around us; we ourselves change."
Times are changing, and people's lives are also changing.The idyllic way of life of the past has long since disappeared.On the other hand, people live a turbulent life in this cage of material civilization: "The long brick and stone street is divided into box-like houses, and each house lives Different people, he put locks on the doors, bolts on the windows, to obtain some guarantee of quiet solitude without disturbance; however, the antenna above his head, the sound waves passing through the roof, told him aloud about the News of wars, murders, strikes and revolutions all over the world, . . . " (The Narrow Bridge of Art)
Woolf believes that times have changed and life has changed, and people's feelings will naturally change accordingly, resulting in a deep sense of crisis, disgust, isolation and doubt.
Woolf wrote in her diary: "Why is life so like a path above an abyss?" The balance is precariously maintained.After the First World War, this sense of crisis of being uncertain about the vicissitudes of life has almost become a common feeling among people in Western society.
In modern cities in the West, there are high-rise buildings everywhere, all kinds of product advertisements and household appliances.People insatiably pursue material enjoyment, and use this pursuit to replace noble spiritual life.In her essay "On the American Novel", Woolf reveals her dislike of this "materialism".
Westerners generally believe that there is always a gap between two generations, which they call the "generation gap".However, in Woolf's view, what modern people are facing is not a "generation gap" in the general sense, but a "sense of isolation" that cuts off contact with their ancestors.Woolf writes: "We are simply cut off from our ancestry. A slight shift in the scale of measurement—a mass of things that have been put in place for many generations, suddenly dropped—has been utterly The earthquake shook that structure, alienated us from the past, . . . every day we find ourselves doing, saying, and thinking things that were impossible for our parents." ")
Therefore, Woolf believes that modern people are suspicious of everything in the past: "It seems that the modern human mind is always trying to verify its various emotions, and it has lost the ability to accept things simply as they are. Power. There is no doubt that this spirit of doubt and verification has renewed the soul and quickened the tempo. There is a quality of candor and sincerity in modern writing which is salutary, if not very lovely." ("For the Modern Literary Impressions")
Many critics at home and abroad have quoted this sentence: "About December 1910, human nature changed." They often linked the change of human nature mentioned by Woolf with the post-impressionist exhibition .But rather than the change in human nature in which Woolf refers to the influence of Post-Impressionist art, she is referring to a more general tendency, referring to changes in human relationships and other relationships, because , in her dissertation, makes it clear: "All relationships between people—the relationship between master and servant, between husband and wife, between father and son—have changed. And once the relationship between people takes place With change, belief, behavior, politics, and literature change." ("Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown")
Why does Woolf date the change to around 1910?We can find clues in the draft of this paper.In the unpublished "House Manuscripts," Woolf explicitly ascribes this change in human relations to Freud's conception: "If you read Freud, in the Within ten minutes you'll have some facts...or at least some probabilities...that our parents couldn't have guessed for themselves [regarding the various ambitions and motives of their fellows]."
Freud observed human society from the viewpoint of human nature evil, and believed that "dark, cruel and ugly forces determine the fate of man".The cruel war revealed the ugly elements in human nature, which made Woolf accept the influence of Freud, thinking that the world is no longer a beautiful garden.“Romance was killed,” she said, “and people looked so ugly—Germans, English, French—so stupid.” (“A Room of One’s Own”)
Under the influence of Freud, modern Westerners have complicated their understanding of human nature.Freud divided the structure of human consciousness into three levels. The top level of conscious consciousness is just the top of the iceberg floating above the water surface, while the vast majority submerged under the water surface belongs to subconscious instinctive desires. kingdom of darkness.Woolf exclaims: "Nature has creeped in instinctive desires so alien to man's main essence that we have become a varied and mottled hodgepodge..."
Human nature is complicated, and self is of course also complicated.Woolf argues that the only identity we manifest on any given occasion may be "not our real self," but rather a "disorderly plane of our diverse selves" that we make up "for convenience" Just get together. ("Selected Works" Volume IV, p. 161) She obviously regards life and self as complex phenomena that are constantly changing, fluid, and contradictory.
In her papers such as "On Women and the Fiction" and "The Leaning Tower", Woolf pointed out that artists need a quiet and comfortable environment and a solid education.After 1914, the situation of artists also changed. The ivory tower of the middle and upper classes and their educational institutions "is no longer a solid tower" but a "sloping tower".Writers struggled to write in the midst of turbulent lives and the threat of war, they looked at themselves, and turned their anger on this unreasonable society. ("Selected Works" Volume II, pp. 116-117)
Woolf believes that the aesthetic sense of modern people is also different from before.She gave a vivid description of this: "On a spring night, when the moon was shining in the sky, the nightingales sang, and the drooping willows fluttered on the river. However, at this moment, a disabled old woman walked on a steel Picked her greasy rags from the bench. She entered his mind with spring; ... Now the poet speaks of the nightingale as 'chirping to dirty ears.' The nightingale chirping beside our modern beauty is some mocking spirit who sniffs at beauty; it turns the mirror over Come, show us Beauty's other cheek is sunken and disfigured." (The Narrow Bridge of Art)
In Woolf's view, the above-mentioned changes will inevitably lead people to consider whether it is appropriate to use traditional art forms intact in modern Western society.She believes that the art forms of the past cannot contain the current reality, "just as a rose petal is not enough to wrap a rough and huge rock." ("The Narrow Bridge of Art") Therefore, Woolf said: "If the imprint of the times still For what it's worth, people are feeling the need to make new developments. There is no doubt that there are writers scattered throughout England, France, and America who are trying to free themselves from the old routine that has bored them."The writers Woolf refers to are the pioneers of Western modernism.
Woolf also believes that truth is objective.However, different people have different feelings and views on the same objective reality.In other words, people's sense of reality varies with changes in the environment of the times and differences in viewpoints.Woolf places great emphasis on people's differing perceptions of reality: "A character may be real to Mr. Bennett and quite unreal to me. ... There is nothing like people How different are the views on the reality of characters, especially in modern works." ("Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown")
All writers are influenced by their environment; they work within the norms and values that make up their world and determine their creative attitudes accordingly.The truth that Woolf advocates in her specific environment is the truth in the eyes of a modern Western writer in the early twentieth century, the truth felt in the atmosphere filled with gunpowder smoke, and the truth illuminated by the flames of bombs. What you see is real.This kind of truth bears a distinct and strong imprint of the times, and its concrete manifestation is a tendency to pursue the inner truth of the characters.
Woolf is an extremely sensitive and nervous intellectual.World War I and the real life after the war gave her strong stimulation and shock.For her, the sensations and impressions of such shocks and vibrations are more vivid and intense than the objective reality itself that caused the shocks and shocks.For Woolf and modern Western intellectuals like her, reality may not be as important as their vision of reality.Therefore, she attaches great importance to the inner psychological truth of the characters (that is, the subjective feeling of the objective world), and she hopes that the writer can express the stimulation and shock felt by modern Westerners.Thus, she praises those writers who have a relationship with "deeper and latent feelings" (Anthology, Vol. IV, p. 4), and belittles those writers who fail to "go deep" into the "surface" of the heart. ("A Writer's Diary" page 2)
The two spiritual pillars of the bourgeoisie, humanitarianism and rationalism, were destroyed by the gunfire of the war.Therefore, among Western intellectuals, a trend of irrationalism has been set off. Freud's psychoanalysis theory and Bergson's intuitionism are the reflections of this social trend of thought.This trend of social thought is naturally reflected in literature, making some writers no longer believe in the traditional literary norms they have learned in the past, as well as the works written by their ancestors.For them, it seems that they can only write according to their direct experience, and it seems that their intuition, impression, emotion and feeling are more reliable than their reason, and they are all keen to dig out the inner psychological structure of the characters.
Because some writers of Woolf's time did not pay attention to this inner subjective reality, Woolf degraded them as "materialists" and accused them: "The reason why they let us down is precisely because they care about It is the body rather than the mind." Woolf pointed out that the traditional creative methods they used ignore an important aspect of modern life, thus "often causing us to miss, rather than get, what we seek. Whether we put This most basic thing is called life or mind, truth or reality". ("On Modern Fiction")
Whether the traditional methods of the nineteenth century can contain and reflect all aspects of real life in the twentieth century is a question that has been circling in Woolf's mind for decades. "Is life like this? Does fiction have to be like this?" This is a question raised by Woolf in "On Modern Fiction" in 1919.Ten years later, in An Introduction to the Novel, Woolf still asked the question: "Is this all? If this is all, is this enough? Do we have to believe this?"
Woolf is constantly asking what truth really means.She believes that reality is the fleeting impression and the ephemeral but eternal memory of the past.She said: "What do you mean by 'truth'? It seems to be changeable and unpredictable; it exists now on a dusty road, now on a newspaper by the roadside, now on a daffodil in the sun." It delights a company in a room and remembers a casual sentence. It weighs on a man walking home under the stars, and makes the world of silence seem more important than the world of talk. More real—yet it exists in the noisy bus of Piccadilly. Sometimes it is in a shape too far from us for us to grasp its nature. But whatever it touches, it To make it fixed, to perpetuate it. Reality is what is left after the day has been peeled off, what is left of the past and our loves and dislikes." ("A Room of One's Own")
Woolf believes that reality is the various impressions that accumulate in our innermost being and continuously emerge to the surface of our consciousness.She said: "Consider the inner workings of an ordinary person in an ordinary day. The mind receives thousands of impressions--trivial, strange, fleeting, or sharpened by steel knives." Impressions that are deeply etched in the mind. They come from all directions, like innumerable atoms constantly showering; Different: the important moment is not here, but there. Therefore, if the writer is a free man instead of a slave, if he can follow his heart instead of conformity, if he can base his work on personal feelings instead of conventional traditions , then there would be no conventional plot, no comedy, no tragedy, no joy or disaster of love'. ("On Modern Fiction")
Woolf goes on to describe life as a translucent envelope that surrounds us.She said: "Life is a translucent envelope that is consistent with our consciousness and surrounds us. Take this changeable, indescribable, indefinable inner spirit-no matter how abnormal and complicated it may appear- —Isn’t it the task of the novelist to express it in words with as little external impurities as possible?” (“On Modern Fiction”)
We can't help but ask: what exactly does "envelope" mean?Why does Woolf use this inventive term over and over again?To answer this question, let us observe and compare the following passages:
"Shakespeare's plays are not the products of a fettered and thwarted mind; they are the flexible envelopes in which his thoughts are contained. He passes unhindered from philosophy to drunken din, from love song to an argument, from simple joy Turn to deep contemplation." (The Narrow Bridge of Art)
"Proust's novel, the product of the culture he describes, is so porous and permeable, so supple and adaptable, so perfectly sensuous, that we see it merely as an envelope, thin and Elastic, stretching and expanding, its function is not to reinforce a point of view but to contain a world." (An Introduction to the Novel)
"Mr. Anderson has drilled down to the deeper, warmer layers of human nature, . . . he has created a world of his own. In this world the senses are exquisitely developed; it is governed by instinct rather than concept. This world of sensuality and instinctual desire is enveloped in a warm cloudlike atmosphere, wrapped in a soft, caressing envelope". ("On the American Novel")
Obviously, the "envelope" that Woolf refers to is not a restrictive frame, but a cloud-like atmosphere that is transparent, soft, permeable, elastic, stretchable, and expandable. To strengthen a certain point of view, it accommodates all kinds of subjective impressions, the changing, indescribable, and unlimited inner spirit, and the entire world.
Woolf thus advocated a flexible pattern in literature for recording the flow of consciousness in men: "Let us record the atoms in the order in which they fell upon men's minds; let us trace the pattern , however incoherent and incongruous it may appear on the surface."
It is the young modernist writers represented by Joyce who can adopt this model.Woolf calls Joyce a "spiritualist" who "was at any cost to reveal the gleam of an inner fire whose message flashed through the mind in order to record it and preserve it. Come down, Mr. Joyce mustered up the courage to discard all the accidental factors that seem to be foreign." ("On Modern Fiction")
Inner realism and character-centered theory are twin sisters, they are the core components of Woolf's novel theory.Without the character, there is no way to express the true inner feelings.Therefore, Woolf puts the characters above the historical facts, literary style and storyline, and pays great attention to them.Woolf praised the British historian Edward Gibbon, because he not only showed historical events, but also showed the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters in the historical events, so she praised Gibbon as a "critic and historian of thought". (Anthology, Vol. 1, p. 118) Although Milton's style is "indescribably beautiful," Woolf regrets that he does not know the characters: "I hardly feel that Milton is alive or He understands men and women." ("A Writer's Diary" p. 5) The twists and turns of the plot may appeal to some readers, but the primary purpose of the plot is to enhance the reality of the characters. (Anthology, Volume I, p. 77) In a book review, Woolf pointed out that the adventures of the heroine are "much more interesting than the heroine herself."She knew that she wrote this, "is recommending this book to half of the readers, and at the same time condemning it to the other half." ("On Modern Writers" p. 82) , will never be satisfied with mysterious plots, they need characters with inner depth.In their eyes, submerging the characters in the plot is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse and taking the place out of favor, which is by no means advisable.
Character is not only the central subject that critics pay attention to, but it also occupies a central position in the minds of writers.First of all, characters are a kind of driving force that drives writers to create.Writers "are tempted to create characters that have ... haunted them"; "the analysis of characters has become a preoccupied pursuit."Secondly, characters are an important means by which writers express their thoughts. "All great novelists make us see everything they want us to see through the eyes of a character."
Character is not only the central concern of critics and writers, but also the central content of novels.Woolf pointed out: "All novels have to deal with characters." "The reason why the form of the novel has developed to be so bulky, cumbersome and undramatic ... so rich, flexible and full of life is to express characters, not Not to preach, sing, or glorify the British Empire." ("Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown")
Since every novel has to deal with characters, it is necessary for us to discuss the way writers deal with characters.In order to analyze and compare several different methods, Woolf narrated a fictional story in her dissertation: In the train, there was a Mrs. Brown, who simultaneously became Bennett, Wells, Galsworth The four novelists, Suy and Woolf himself, observe.Watching Mrs. Brown, Woolf begins to invent a story about her, imagining her inner workings and her relationship to her traveling companions, considering how she might be portrayed in different settings.On the other hand, if Wells, the utopian social reformer, had seen Mrs. Brown, he would have immediately imagined a new and better world; Galsworthy would have tried to ascertain her social class and circumstances; Nate, with his penchant for exterior detail, would describe the carriage she was in.
Clearly Woolf's method is of one type, and those of the three writers are of another.Which of the two types is better for a post-World War I Western writer?This is the question that Woolf needs to think about further.
Woolf believes that the center of the novel is the character, and the core of the character is his "humanity".And Mrs. Brown is actually a symbol of "humanity": "The train is running, it is not from Richmond to Waterloo, but from one era of English literature to another, because Mrs. Brown is eternal, Mrs. Brown It is human nature, Mrs. Brown has only changed superficially, and the passers-by on the train are the novelists."
The term "human nature" used by Woolf is not what we usually refer to as human nature as opposed to class.The human nature she refers to refers to the "life" of the characters, the "soul on which they live", which "is life itself".If we analyze and compare the specific requirements for characters scattered in Woolf's various papers, we can further understand the exact meaning of Woolf's term "humanity".Woolf generally puts forward the following specific requirements for the characters in the novel:
First, characters must have thoughts and feelings as well as actions, otherwise we cannot say we really know them. ("Selected Works" Volume 1, pp. 141-143)
Second, the characters had to appear to be real "live men and women"; they had to be individual, not just types. ("Selected Works" Volume 1, page 227, page 236; "On Modern Writers" page 35)
Third, the character must be a unity of individuality and commonality, a combination of personal passions and idiosyncrasies, and something symbolic that we all have in common. ("Selected Works", Volume 1, page 261)
Fourth, characters must be multifaceted and multilayered.Woolf repeatedly emphasized the need to penetrate "those ambiguous areas of psychology".Modern psychology believes that the consciousness structure and psychological activities of characters are complex and multi-layered.Therefore, it is quite difficult to capture the inner truth.But it's a risk writers are willing to take and readers must encourage them to take. ("On Modern Writers", pp. 115-116)
Obviously, the character in Woolf's mind has thoughts and feelings. He has both individuality and commonality. He is a multi-faceted, multi-layered, living person with an inner sense of reality.Only by expressing such characters can we grasp the "life", the "soul" and the "humanity".Judging from the specific content of Woolf's use of this term, it seems that it is more appropriate to translate it as "character".
However, the three writers Bennett, Wells and Galsworthy run counter to the goal proposed by Woolf. "Their eyes ... looked at the factory, at Utopia, even at the decorations and tapestries in the carriages; but they never looked at Mrs. Brown, at life, at humanity." These materialists "incomparably Emphasis on the external structure of things. They show us a house and hope that we may deduce from it what happens to the characters who inhabit it.” However, “If you are sure, novels describe characters first and house they lived in, then it is a wrong way to begin by describing the house."
Woolf emphasized that it is inappropriate to focus on the "body" and ignore the "soul" and pay attention to the external structure and ignore the inner world. Their artistic tools are lifeless. "Those traditional norms mean destruction, those tools mean death."
Woolf's comments have always been extremely gentle and tactful. Why did she uncharacteristically make such a harsh judgment here?Because those "materialists" are good at controlling words and conceiving plots, but "life" and "humanity" slip through their fingers, and the inner "truth" of the characters she is particularly concerned about is lost.In short, they failed to fully express the inner feelings of modern Westerners.
Woolf called Wells, Bennett, and Galsworthy, who were older than her, the writers of the Edwardian era, and Joyce, De H. Lawrence, E. M. Ford Eliot and T. S. Eliot are called Georgian writers.Georgian writers, Woolf felt, were deeply troubled.Their hearts were greatly stimulated and shaken, and they wanted to express the complex feelings of this stimulation and shock.However, they have no proper role models to follow.Because the writers of the Edwardian era followed the tradition of the Victorian era, what they cared about was the details of the external structure, and they could not express the complex and delicate inner world.
The shackles of tradition made Georgian writers despair, and despair turned into angry defiance and destruction: "The signs are evident everywhere. Grammar violated; syntax dismembered; like a weekend away at an aunt's Holiday boy, who, in sheer defiance of despair, wallows in a bed of geraniums when the Sabbath wears off in austere dreary." ("Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown")
Since the characters are the center of the novel, the life of the novel, seeing the living characters being suppressed and suffocated by the tradition, the writers should of course try to rescue the characters at all costs, but in a hurry, they can’t find a suitable tool , so the window had to be broken.It is from this perspective that Woolf judges Joyce's acts of sabotage: "The vulgarity and indecency displayed by Mr. Joyce in The , he felt he had to break the window in order to breathe air."
Joyce was not alone, he was a representative figure of a group of young writers in the George era.The number of these modernist writers is small, but their energy is not small.The noise created by their destruction of cultural traditions suddenly became so loud that it became a feature of an era: "We hear this sound all around us; in poems, novels, biographies, even newspaper articles and essays, we The crackling, smashing and destruction was heard. It was the overriding sound of the Georgian era."
Although Woolf sees reasons for the destructive revolt of the modernists, she does not overestimate their originality.These writers, she argues, raised a glimmer of hope in their readers, only to quickly disappoint them: "Original promises unfulfilled; intellect poor; the splendor gleaned from life not translated into literature. The best modern Many of his works, seemingly recorded under pressure, in a pale abbreviation, preserve with astonishing brilliance the movements and expressions of characters as they pass the screen. But the flash faded away, leaving us with a deep sense of dissatisfaction." ("Impressions on Modern Literature")
Woolf called the Georgian era a fragmented age, and at the same time she smelled a breath of spring from the barrenness: "This is a fragmented age. There are a few verses, a few pages, a chapter here and there. , the beginning of this novel and the end of that novel rival the best of any age or author. But can we take a loose collection of pages to our posterity, or To ask the readers of that time, to face the whole literary heritage, to sift our little pearls from our mass of rubbish?" "We reiterate that this is a barren and exhausting age; . . . it was the first of the clear days of early spring, and life was not entirely devoid of color."
"Little pearls", "a big pile of garbage"!As a modernist Woolf, how severe is her criticism of modernism!Did Woolf kill modernism with one stick?no!In her paper "Impressions on Modern Literature", she pointed out that modernist novels are just "notebooks", not "works", "time is like an excellent teacher". Point out the flaws of modernism.Modernist explorations provided lessons, and their "notebooks" would provide a certain basis for "future masterpieces."Therefore, Woolf asks writers to "watch carefully the distant horizon to prepare the way for future masterpieces".
Apparently, Woolf looked at the literary phenomenon of modernism from a macro perspective.She believes that although the modernists did not establish a literary monument, they blasted the tradition, cleared the roadblocks, cleared the foundation, and made some preparations for the establishment of a new Western literary tradition.In this sense, people can only temporarily endure the impact and destruction of modernist traditions in the nineteenth century.So she said: "Go bear the cramped, hazy, broken, failed work. . . . We are trembling on the brink of a great new age in English literature."
However, new literary traditions cannot suddenly fall from the sky.Therefore, writers must constantly experiment and explore.Woolf herself is an experimentalist, and she welcomes all experiments and explorations.She greatly appreciates new prose with poetic flavor.She applauds even rather poor attempts at the beauty of novel forms.All the excitement, disintegration, invention, novelty of the modern world gave her hope.Woolf has repeatedly emphasized that the characteristic of modernist literature is flexibility: "There is no literature of any age that is so little subject to authority, as our literature is not dominated by great men; there does not seem to be any The literature of the age, so headstrong with its awe-inspiring gifts, or so capricious in its experimental explorations." (Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 38-39)
In order to create living characters and grasp the inner reality, Woolf advocated that artists should be free to experiment and explore, and find suitable art forms, expressive techniques and creative themes without sticking to one pattern.She believes that no experiment, not even the most whimsical, is taboo. ("On Modern Fiction")
Based on this understanding, Woolf pays full attention to the originality of writers of different genres in different times and genres throughout the ages.She has praised writers of very different styles in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, such as Sterne, the Bronte sisters, and Henry James ("Anthology" Vol. At the same time, she understands that too much originality can come across as artificial.She believes: "A first-rate writer has enough respect for writing to keep him from playing tricks, or resorting to some jaw-dropping tricks." ("A Writer's Diary" p. 48)
However, it is necessary to take some risks.For example, while she acknowledges the inadequacy of Dorothy Richardson's experimental novels, she still appreciates her bold attempt to produce something new in an unpretentious way.理查森的表现方式本身就引人注目，但其吸引力并非仅仅出于新颖独特。 “它代表一种真正的信念——确信她所要叙述的内容与文学传统所提供给她的叙述形式之间，确实是相互脱节了。”（《论当代作家》第120页）
伍尔夫关于理查森的评论表明，她相信在形式和内容两方面都必须表现出独创性。现代的思想内容，要用现代的艺术结构来加以表现，方能丝丝入扣，处处妥帖。正是对于应该如何表达她想要表达的思想内容这种信念，使伍尔夫成为一位“意识流”小说家，一位现代主义者。从理论上说，形式和内容是紧密结合不可分离的。“一首诗歌、一出戏剧、一部小说的字句结构、艺术效果与思想意义，同样是结合在一起的：只要前面一个因素发生了变化，后面一个因素也随之而发生相应的变化。”（《文选》第一卷，第7页）总之，时代的变迁提供了不同的思想内容，新颖的思想内容又需要独特的艺术形式来加以表现。这就是伍尔夫这位现代主义者在实验探索之时理论上的立足点。
伍尔夫从这一点出发，将文学的语言和形式诸方面的问题一一予以探讨，把各种传统的文学形式作了分析比较。她不仅在理论上强调实验革新，而且在她本人的创作活动中一再尝试，探索各种文学形式之间相互渗透的可能性。通过一番摸索，她认为，传统的文学形式和体裁的范围已经被现代作家扩大了。她给她的“小说”提出了一些新颖别致的名称：诸如“挽歌”、“心理学的诗篇”、“传记”、“戏剧诗”、“自传”、“随笔小说”等等。她觉得，在她写作之时，“点点滴滴的韵文穿插了进来。”（《一位作家的日记》第122页）。她在“尝试”发明一种新的戏剧：它是自由的，又是集中的；它是散文，又有诗意；它是小说，又是戏剧。（《一位作家的日记》第103页）伍尔夫在写她的最后第二本小说之时，声称她已学会“把各种形式”融合到一部书中去。（《一位作家的日记》第215页）她要把“讽刺、喜剧、诗歌、叙事”各种因素综合起来，拧成一股绳，以便创造为现代思想内容服务的新的文学形式。（《一位作家的日记》第191页）她为此目标奋斗终生，并且乐此不疲。
伍尔夫把小说看作进行实验的合乎理想的工具。因为小说相对而言是一种比较灵活自由的文学形式，它具有吸收融化其他文学形式之优点的比较大的可能性。根据伍尔夫本人以及其他现代主义作家的实验探索，她预言未来的小说有可能向综合化、诗化、非个人化和戏剧化的方向发展。
伍尔夫认为，未来的小说将成为一种更加综合化的文学形式。“它将用散文写成，但那是一种具有许多诗歌特征的散文。它将具有诗歌的某种凝炼，但更多地接近于散文的平凡。它将带有戏剧性，然而它又不是戏剧。它将被人阅读，而不是被人演出。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
未来的小说将会成为一种诗化的小说。它将会“具有诗歌的某些属性。它将表现人与自然、人与命运之间的关系，表现他的想象和他的梦幻。……它将采用那个不协调因素的奇异的混合体——现代心灵——的模式。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
未来的小说近乎抽象的概括而非具体的分析。它“将由作家站在从生活退后一步的地方来写，因为这样可以扩大视野”。“它将会像诗歌一样，只提供生活的轮廓，而不是它的细节。它将很少使用作为小说的标志之一的那种令人惊异的写实能力。它将很少告诉我们关于它的人物的住房、收入、职业等情况；它和那种社会小说和环境小说几乎没有什么血缘关系。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
伍尔夫指出：“那种诗的（创作）态度，当然大部分是建立于物质基础之上。它有赖于闲暇的时间和少量的金钱，以及金钱和闲暇给予我们的非个人地、冷静地观察世界的机会。”（《妇女与小说》）
未来的小说将会向非个人化的方向发展。作家的目光不是局限于人物个人的悲欢离合，而是注视整个宇宙、命运和人类所渴望的梦想和诗意。
伍尔夫列举了“个人化”创作方法的各种缺陷：
第一，“个人化”会使一部作品的主题和人物都狭隘化。文学会被“那个该死的利己主义的自我”彻底毁坏，这个自我“把一部书的趣味、主题、情景、人物都狭隘化了，来反映作者个人”。（《一位作家的日记》第22页）另一方面，“那些心理小说家，过分倾向于把心理学这个概念局限于个人交往范围之内；心理小说家们往往纠缠于某人陷入或摆脱了情网、汤姆爱上了裘迪斯而裘迪斯也爱上了他或者完全不爱他等等。而我们有时却渴望从这些不断的、无情的分析中解脱出来。我们渴望某些更加非个人的关系。我们渴望着理想、梦幻、想象和诗意。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
第二，“个人化”使读者注意力集中的焦点双重化。“在《米德尔马奇》和中，我们不仅意识到作者的性格，……我们还意识到有一位女性在场——有人在谴责她的性别所带来的不公正待遇，并且为她应有的权利而呼吁。……那种为了个人的原因而发出的呼吁，或者使一个书中人物成为某种个人的不满或牢骚之传声筒的愿望，总是会产生一种灾难性的后果：似乎读者注意力集中的焦点，在突然之间由单一变为双重。”（《妇女与小说》）
第三，“个人化”会破坏作品的整体性。伍尔夫认为，女作家的女性意识“引起了对于现实的歪曲”，使作品“丧失了完美的整体性”，“丧失了作为一件艺术品最为基本的要素。”（《妇女与小说》）她又认为，美国作家的民族意识也成了艺术创作中的障碍物：“各种各样意识——自我意识、种族意识、性别意识、文化意识——它们与艺术无关，却插到作家和作品之间，而其后果——至少在表面上看来——是不幸的。”（《论美国小说》）
伍尔夫认为，“非个人化”的创作态度将有助于扩大作家的视野。她说：“妇女生活更大程度的非个人化，将会鼓励诗人气质的发展……。这会导致她们较少地沉湎于事实，而且不再满足于惊人敏锐地记录展现在她们目光之下的细节。她们将会超越个人的、政治的关系，看到诗人试图解决的更为广泛的问题——关于我们的命运以及人生之意义的各种问题。”（《妇女与小说》）
伍尔夫认为，未来的小说发展可能趋向于戏剧化。从伍尔夫的论文中所表达的思想内容来判断，她所使用的“戏剧化”这个术语，具有以下几方面的涵义：
第一，未来的小说将会把在社会中起重大作用的某些影响加以“戏剧化”，把现代西方人心灵中的各种“刺激”、“效应”、“情绪”、“感觉”表达出来，捕捉生活中丰富的色彩变化。
第二，“戏剧化”意味着获得戏剧所具有的那种爆发性的情绪效应，使“读者们血液沸腾，而不仅仅是击中他们智力上的敏感之处”。
第三，“戏剧化”这个术语也包括了获得这种爆发性情绪效应之途径。那就是把个人的情绪非个人化，一般化，铸成严密有序的艺术整体，从而使人物具有戏剧性的力量。换言之，这种情绪效应是一种整体化的艺术效应。
伍尔夫对于未来小说所作的预言，是以她对于现代西方文学的观察分析为依据的，其中包涵着她本人的文学理想。
伍尔夫注意到，西方现代文学中发生了深刻的变化，用她的话来讲，就是文学的侧重点与过去不同了。
侧重点转移的第一个表现，是人们的兴趣由外在的客观世界转向内在的主观世界：“对于现代人来说，'那一点'——即兴趣的集中点——很可能就在心理学暧昧不明的领域之中。因此，侧重点马上和以往稍有不同，而强调了迄今为止被人忽视的一些东西。”（《论现代小说》）
侧重点转移的第二层意思，是人们把注意力转向心理领域中非理性、非个人、非功利的方面。伍尔夫说：“在小说（按：指传统小说）的统治之下，我们密切地仔细观察了心灵的一部分，却把另一部分忽略了。我们已渐渐忘记：生活的很大而且是很重要的一部分，包涵在我们对于玫瑰、夜莺、晨曦、夕阳、生命、死亡和命运这一类事物的各种情绪之中；我们忘记了：我们把许多时间用于单独地睡眠、做梦、思考和阅读；我们并未把时间完全花费在个人之间的关系上；我们所有的精力也并不是全部消耗于谋生餬口。……我们渴望着理想、梦幻、想象和诗意。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
伍尔夫认为，过去的文学传统忽视了、忘记了很重要的一个方面，因此不能适应今天西方世界的现实生活。于是，现代西方作家只能采取“矫枉过正”的办法，割舍传统所侧重的那个方面，集中精力来突出过去被忽略的另一方面。因为，“似乎不可避免地要放弃一些东西。你不可能手里拿着所有的表达工具，去穿越那座狭窄的艺术之桥。”
然而，这种放弃传统的做法，对伍尔夫而言，恐怕只是一种适应时代变化的权宜之计。她的最高的文学理想，也许是两个方面的平衡、结合、凝聚、集中，构成一个互相渗透的艺术整体。对于这种假设，我们可以提供不少有力的证据。
第一个证据，是伍尔夫对爱德华时代的作家表示不满，因为他们重视“躯体”忽视“灵魂”。
第二个证据，是伍尔夫把现代主义作品看作支离破碎的“笔记本”而不是完整的作品，因为它虽抓住了“灵魂”，却又丢弃了传统的表达工具。
第三个证据，是伍尔夫对于伊丽莎白时代戏剧的评价。一方面她赞扬它的想象和诗意；另一方面她又批评它过分脱离现实，“使我们厌倦”。
第四个证据，是伍尔夫对于传记文学的论述。伍尔夫认为，理想的传记应该是一部由两种事实——即确凿的历史事实（按：即客观真实）和作者眼中所见的事实（按：即主观真实）互相交织而成的著作。（《文选》第四卷第221—235页）
前面三个证据，证明伍尔夫不赞成偏于某一个侧面的办法（这是指从根本上来说，而不是指一时的权宜之计）；后面一个证据，证明伍尔夫赞成两个侧面有机地结合在一起。
伍尔夫是主张现实与幻想结合的。她说：“没有任何东西比作家使现实和幻想相结合的能力更迅速地显示出作家的天才。”
伍尔夫指出，在伊丽莎白时代的戏剧中，“他们的斯密斯都变成了公爵，他们的利物浦都变成了神话传说中的岛屿和热那亚的某个地点。”然而，文学“不知怎地，总是必须以斯密斯为基础”。换言之，文学必须以普通人的现实生活为基础。
伍尔夫认为，文学应高于现实生活，但又与现实生活保持着一种若即若离的联系。她说：“小说就像一只蜘蛛网，也许只是极轻微地粘附着，然而它还是四只角都粘附于生活之上。”（《一间自己的房间》）她又指出，未来小说“有能力拔地而起、向上飞升，但它不是一飞冲天、直上霄汉，而是像扫过的旋风一般，螺旋形地上升，同时又和日常生活中人性的各种兴趣和癖嗜保持着联系。”（《狭窄的艺术之桥》）
能够达到伍尔夫这几项要求的作品，似乎是不多的。但是，在她的论文和书评中，我们还是可以找到几个罕见的例子。
伍尔夫认为，在爱·摩·福斯特的长篇小说《印度之旅》中，现实与幻想水乳交融，作者“用一种精神的光芒使观察力的浓密而坚实的躯体获得了蓬勃的生机”。她又说：“在这种现实主义和神秘主义的结合方面，和他（按：指福斯特）最密切相似的，也许就是易卜生。易卜生也有同样的现实主义力量。对他说来，一个房间就是一个房间，一张书桌就是一张书桌，一只字纸篓就是一只字纸篓。同时，现实的那些随身道具，在某些时刻变成了一张帷幕，我们透过它看到了无穷的境界。……我们正在观看的东西被照亮了，它的深处被揭示出来了。”（《论爱·摩·福斯特的小说》）
易卜生是十九世纪的现实主义戏剧家，福斯特是二十世纪的现代主义小说家。伍尔夫对他们作品中主观和客观互相渗透、现实与幻想互相融合的倾向表示赞赏，难道这不是十分耐人寻味的吗？在这里不是透露了有关伍尔夫的文学理想的信息吗？
也许，伍尔夫认为：最优秀的文学作品之感染力，在于它使用了一种新颖的透视方法，把新的情景、新的人物、新的世界介绍给我们；或者，它以一种崭新的洞察力，把陈旧的观念或场景呈现出来，使我们也随之而用一种新的方式来观看我们原来所熟悉的东西。这样的文学，超越于现实之上，又与现实保持着一种基本的联系。它从现实生活后退一步或上升一步，但是并未完全脱离现实生活。它呈现出一幅完整集中的图景，在其中，灵魂与躯体、主观与客观、精神与物质、现实与幻想、散文与诗歌交织在一起，构成一个不可分割的整体。偏向一边的传统文学与偏向另一边的现代主义文学，与这个目标相去甚远。在伍尔夫的心目中，只有未来时代的文学杰作，方可完全实现这个理想。
伍尔夫在她的评论集《普通读者》的序言中，借用了约翰逊博士的话：“我很高兴与普通读者意见一致；因为，在所有那些微妙的高论和鸿博的教条之后，诗坛的荣誉桂冠，最终还得取决于未经文学偏见污染的读者们的常识。”
伍尔夫接下去说：“普通读者不同于批评家和学者。……他是为了个人的兴趣而阅读，不是为了传授知识或纠正他人的见解。最重要的是：他在一种本能的指引之下，……。”
在这两段文字中，伍尔夫概括地阐明了她的基本态度：
第一，她宁愿做一名毫无偏见的普通读者，而不愿当一位大发高论的学者。
第二，她的评论以满足个人兴趣的阅读为基础，不是为了传授知识和纠正错误。她引导读者去鉴赏艺术品。她是一位“导游”，而不是一位“导师”。
第三，她的评论依据是“常识”和“本能”，而不是某种理论体系。
许多伍尔夫的研究者都注意到她这种基本态度。琼·贝内特说：“伍尔夫评论的基调是鉴赏而非评判。”安东尼·福斯吉尔指出：“对她说来，阅读和评论是独特的创造活动……而不是一种'客观的分析'。”桃乐赛·布鲁斯特认为：“她诱导我们去阅读作品，并且反复阅读，而不是要求我们去接受对于一部作品的判决，或者给它贴上某种标签。”
伍尔夫的评论属于屈莱顿，哈兹列特和兰姆的传统。他们的文学评论是平易近人、循循善诱、饶有兴味的。这是一种印象式的而非分析性的批评。这种评论以批评家个人的本能感受为依据，不以任何固定的规范作标准。这种评论是给人以愉快享受的艺术，而不是严格的科学。
如何才能更好地鉴赏一部作品？伍尔夫认为，关键在于掌握不同的作家所使用的不同的透视方法。
伍尔夫在她的日记（1925年12月7日）中写道：“我想，我将会发现一些关于小说的理论……我正在考虑中的一个问题，就是关于透视方法的问题。”
伍尔夫把透视方法看作一个举足轻重的问题。她说：“那些文学杰作的成功，并非在于它们没有缺陷……而是在于一个完全掌握了透视法的头脑的无限说服力。”（《论爱·摩·福斯特的小说》）
伍尔夫发现，作家们可以从不同的角度来观察生活。她在《狭窄的艺术之桥》这篇论文中，就叙述了三种不同的观察角度。既然作家可以从各种不同的角度来观察生活，那么读者想要真正欣赏他的作品，就必须站在他的角度，用他的透视方法来阅读。因此，伍尔夫说：“不要对你的作家发号施令，要试图与他化为一体。你要做他创作活动中的伙伴与助手。”（《应该如何阅读一部作品》）
伍尔夫在《论〈鲁滨孙飘流记〉》这篇论文中，进一步阐明了她的观点：“我们必须独自爬上小说家的肩膀，注视着他的双眸，直到我们也能充分理解他使用何种程序来安排那些小说家们命中注定必须加以观察的、广泛的、普通的客观对象——个人、人类和大自然……。”“我们首要的任务，而且是非常艰巨的任务，就是掌握他的透视方法。”
为什么这是个艰巨的任务？因为每个读者都受到不同的文学传统观念的影响，这些先入之见会遮蔽他的视线，使他难以体验作者所使用的方法。读者只有把各种偏见丢在一旁，才有可能站在作者的角度，来领会他的方法。（《文选》第一卷第34页，70—71页）因此，当我们阅读一部作品之时，我们必须把一首诗歌、一出戏剧、一部小说“应该是什么样儿”这种传统观念弃而不顾，集中精力去关注那部作品本身。（《文选》第一卷，第1—2页）
在《应该如何阅读一部作品》这篇论文中，伍尔夫阐述了不同作家的透视方法之显著差异，指出笛福笔下的旷野、奥斯丁笔下的客厅和哈代笔下的威塞克斯，是三个不同的世界。“这些作品所展现的世界虽然千差万别截然不同，其中每一个世界本身，却是首尾一贯浑然一体的。每一个世界的创造者都谨慎小心地遵守他自己的透视方法之各种规律。”
在《小说概论》中，伍尔夫进一步发展了这种关于不同透视方法的观点。她把一批重要的小说家按照他们所使用的不同透视方法加以分类论述。
伍尔夫提醒我们注意，生活于同一个时代的作家——诸如司各特、简·奥斯丁和皮科克——如何按照他们各自的透视方法，来安排他们自己作品中的那块天地。同时她又指出，他们扎根于相同的时代土壤之中。他们的透视方法既有个性又有共性，总能反映出一定的时代特征。
伍尔夫又提醒我们注意，即使是同一位作家，在他的不同的创作时期，他的透视方法也可能有所不同。例如，在《论约瑟夫·康拉德》这篇论文中，她就指出了康拉德早期、中期、晚期透视方法上的差异。
马克思说过：“对于不懂音乐的耳朵，最美的音乐也没有意义，就不是它的对象。”
伍尔夫也表达了类似的看法。她认为，没有文学修养的读者好比聋子，他们听不到美的声音，他们不可能领会作家所使用的透视方法，捕捉他的作品所传递的信息。“既然美的教诲和她的声音是不可分离的，那么，对于那些听不到她声音的人们，我们又如何能使他们信服呢？”
至于伍尔夫本人，她的耳朵对于音乐极为敏感，她善于捕捉音乐的旋律背后所深藏的意蕴和信息。对她说来，一部小说好比是一部交响乐的总谱，而她就像是一位优秀的指挥。她善于理解作曲家所使用的创作方法并领会其创作意图，在她指挥乐队演奏之时，她把作曲家原来的构思恰当地向听众表达出来。而且她是一位曲目极其广阔的指挥。她广泛地阅读十八、十九、二十世纪不同流派的作品。她并不向作家们发号施令评头品足，她力图不抱成见，去努力发现每一位作家在每一部作品中所使用的观察角度和透视方法。
在西方，的确有不少文学批评体系。有的批评家从历史角度，有的批评家从心理学角度，有的批评家从社会学角度，有的批评家从各种现代文学流派的角度来提出他们的批评标准和理论，建立起一整套学院式的封闭体系，列出许多条条框框，再拿它们去套文学作品，合乎他那一套理论的就予以赞扬，不合乎的就痛加贬斥。
伍尔夫对于各种封闭式的、排他性的理论体系，始终抱怀疑态度。她在对于戴·赫·劳伦斯的批评中，尖锐地表达了她对于封闭体系的反感：
“在那些书信中，他不能倾听弦外之音；他一定要提出忠告，并且把你也纳入那个体系。因此，他对于那些想纳入某种体系的人具有吸引力。而我可没有这种要求……。他的尺度自上而下来衡量〔人们〕。为什么要这样对别人横加指责？为什么没有某种体系来把那些好人也包含进去？如果能有一种不封闭的体系——那将是个多么惊人的发现。”（《一位作家的日记》第187页）
读者阅读了本文第一部分伍尔夫关于小说改革的论点之后，很可能会有这样的想法：伍尔夫是一位现代主义者，她否定了别人的理论体系，却提出了她自己的现代主义理论体系；她用一种新的条条框框来代替过去的条条框框。This is actually a kind of misunderstanding.
首先，伍尔夫的文学评论大部分是表达一种鉴赏的印象，对于她本人的美学观点，她并未留下有条不紊的记录。我们要理解伍尔夫的理论，就必须从她的论文、日记、书信、小说中搜集她的美学信念之证据。本文第一部分中的资料，是笔者把分散于伍尔夫各篇论文与日记中的材料加以集中、整理并使之系统化的结果。当这些观点原来分散出现之时，它们并非如此结构严整、线索分明的。
其次，伍尔夫自己的理论是发展变化的，她的各篇论文中的观点，有时不免前后矛盾。例如，她经常表现出一种对于“物质主义”的厌恶，但是，当她论及小说家必须发展其诗人气质之时，又强调必须有一定的物质基础作为保证。
再次，本文第一部分中整理出来的伍尔夫关于小说改革的理论，虽然相当重要，但是以篇幅而论，在她的全部评论文章中，只占很小的比例。在伍尔夫的论文中，有大量的材料可以证明：伍尔夫对于十八、十九世纪的现实主义文学十分推崇，她本人也从传统的文学中继承了不少东西。
国内外不少评论家都倾向于把伍尔夫的《论现代小说》视为现代主义的美学宣言，认为伍尔夫是在为“意识流”小说摇旗呐喊。笔者本人过去也有这种看法。现在我们把伍尔夫的大量论文、日记和《论现代小说》进行对照比较，就可以看出：这篇文章，不过是伍尔夫在对现代小说观察分析的基础之上，谈谈她的看法和设想，指出了某种可能的发展倾向而已。况且，这些看法和设想，又和她的其他论文中的观点颇有不同之处。这篇论文暗示小说是一种自发的灵感之爆发，并且认为作家的任务就是记录心灵对于各种印象的被动的感受，而不必修改剪辑或操纵这些印象。她在《论重新阅读小说》这篇论文中，却强烈地驳斥了这种观点。她一再在她的论文中强调承认以下事实之重要性：小说和其他艺术品一样，是人工产品，它通过对于题材结构的选择安排而被制造出来，它从属于小说家所作的选择和他所采用的表现技巧。在她的小说中，她又指出，意识本身并非对于外界刺激的被动的感受，而是有创造性的；知觉本身是有意识的，它包含着辨别意义、构成现实映象的活动，它包含着结构的形成。
我们必须强调指出，《论现代小说》这篇论文的最后结论，是开放性的。伍尔夫在把英俄两国的小说作了比较之后说道：这些小说像潮水一般向我们涌来，带来了“一种艺术具有无限可能性的观点，并且提醒我们，世界是广袤无垠的，而除了虚伪和做作之外，没有任何东西——没有一种'方式'，没有一种实验，甚至是最想入非非的实验——是禁忌的”。
伍尔夫曾经说过：“最能接受印象的头脑，往往是不善于作出结论。”（《论托马斯·哈代的小说》）伍尔夫的理论不过是她观察小说发展倾向时所得到的印象，她并未作出权威性的结论。与此相反，她用强调的语气指出小说这种艺术形式的开放性，指出小说吸取其他艺术形式之各种特征的可能性，指出通过小说来探索迄今为止未被人考察过的各种领域的可能性。她认为，应该把现代小说家从传统的故事情节、按年代顺序编排的线索、传统的人物塑造观念这些桎梏中解放出来，使他们有可能更充分地表现出现代人复杂多变的内心世界。伍尔夫欢迎实验探索，但她并未把现代主义小说视为不朽杰作，而是把它们看作一项重大实验的中间过渡产品。因此，她并未企图制定现代主义唯我独尊的派性体系或帮规教条。
伍尔夫对于文学队伍本身，也抱一种开放的态度。她不仅为妇女作家登上文坛欢呼喝彩，而且为她们所受到的种种限制发出不平之鸣，为她们未来的发展出谋献策。
伍尔夫欢迎工人阶级参加到作家行列中来。在她一九三〇年所写的一封书信中，她盼望“打破”中产阶级和无产阶级之间的隔阂。她说，有一阵“可怕的火焰在燃烧，在穿透隔阂，并且把我们熔化在一起，这样，生活就会变得更为丰富，作品就会变得更加复杂，整个社会就会把它的各种财富聚集在一起，而不是使它们彼此分离隔绝”。
伍尔夫深信，文学是一种双方合作的事业，在这项事业中，作者和读者双方皆可作出贡献。换言之，文学事业对于读者来说，也是开放的。读者在阅读之时，可以通过他的理解和欣赏，进行一种再创作活动，掌握作者的透视角度，领会作者的构思，看到作者所曾经看到过的种种景象。
因此，伍尔夫要求文学批评家们“对于现代文学采取一种更加开阔而较少个人色彩的见解”。如果一定要说伍尔夫建立了什么体系的话，那就是一个开放的体系。
在伍尔夫的小说理论中，存在着一些不足之处。首先，在伍尔夫的理论中包含着一种夸大性。
伍尔夫夸大了时代的差异，夸大了十九世纪与二十世纪之间的差距，并且在爱德华时代和乔治时代之间划下了一道不可逾越的鸿沟。她认为爱德华时代作家写的小说是十九世纪现实主义文学的翻版，完全忽视了二十世纪西方人所感受到的那种强烈的危机感和异化感。难道事实真的是如此吗？
我们就以被伍尔夫斥为“物质主义者”的威尔斯为例吧。威尔斯是现实主义作家，但是，在他的成名作中，却有着异常丰富的想象，他以极度夸张讽刺的手法，来表现资本主义社会中人的异化现象。在威尔斯的笔下，不仅无产者“莫洛克”被异化了，甚至有产者“艾洛依”也被异化而“完全丧失了合乎人性的外观”。威尔斯把二十世纪西方社会中的那种异化感、危机感、恐惧感大加渲染，并且暗示：西方社会所面临的局势，不仅是人类的畸形和退化，而且会因为互相残杀而同归于尽。这种思想情绪，完全是属于二十世纪的，而他所采用的科幻小说这种艺术形式，也是二十世纪的。贝内特和高尔斯华绥虽然恪守现实主义的传统，但是，他们的作品，在字里行间也弥漫着现代西方社会的危机感。总之，二十世纪的现实主义决非十九世纪的现实主义，它也深深地打上了时代的烙印，不过这烙印是以不同的方式，打在不同的部位而已。
此外，威尔斯虽然是一位现实主义作家，他在创作中也曾走过曲折的道路。第一次世界大战给整个资本主义世界带来了极大的震动，也粉碎了威尔斯乌托邦的美梦。他和许多西方知识分子一样，对于传统的理性哲学和自然科学的信仰发生了动摇，在精神上发生了危机。因此，在这个时期，他写了《主教的灵魂》（1917），《上帝乃无形的君王》（1917），《琼与彼得》（1918），《不灭之火》（1919）等神秘主义色彩极为浓厚的作品，甚至企图从宗教中寻求摆脱危机的出路。当然，这些并非他的主要著作。但是，像他这样一位现实主义作家，这样一位精通自然科学的唯物主义者，居然也一度卷入了弥漫于整个西方社会的非理性主义思潮，这也是时代烙印的一种表现。
反过来说，在现代主义作品中，又往往能看到十九世纪传统的影响。在乔伊斯的《都柏林人》和以及戴·赫·劳伦斯的《儿子与情人》中，都可以看到十九世纪批判现实主义小说和社会问题小说的影响。劳伦斯的长篇小说，就是因为具有反对帝国主义战争的社会历史内容，而被英国政府借“淫秽”的罪名查禁的。
事实证明，西方现代主义作品并未完全脱离十九世纪的传统，二十世纪的西方现实主义作品