Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman is my third book of this course. It is almost February, time really does fly.
Anyway. Prof said last week that The Shrouded Woman might be a response to Breton’s Nadja. I can see why he said that. Surrealism wants to unleash the unconcious mind; modernism challenges readers to approach from a different perspective (a very brief summary of based on my little understanding). This story begins from the “unconcious mind point-of-view”, the corpse, or should I say spirit of a deceased woman. She names her family one by one but ultimately, this story is about her thoughts and experience with love. I wonder if narrating events from a third person view is a modernism thing, I think it’s fairly useful for providing more insights without the risk of ruining the character’s image. The narrator would ask questions to guide the reader’s thinking.
Why then did she bring out that shyness in her? Because of her gestures, perhaps. Those gestures always so harmonious and sure. None of them ever seemed out of place like her own. They never remained in suspense…No, she didn’t really envy her!
I believe, I shouldn’t call her a narrator. Maybe a commentator? Play by play announcer? Bombal’s writing style is also heavy on imagery, the details between the lines are nice. Though not on purpose, but I rarely read books by female authors. I’d say it’s pretty refreshing especially after Proust and Bombal. Not locked into the mind of one character also makes reading so much easier.
In my judgement, this book is not a respone to Breton. This is just a last goodbye tour of a dead woman, something she has to do before peacefully letting go of her mortal life. I’m not sure if she settled for what she had in the end, or something just clicked. To me, she didn’t get the love she wanted, for one reason and another.
Question: If you get the chance to review your life after you have passed, how important is love?
Ryan, I was hoping to hear more about your reading of this novel. I think this week’s post fell a little short and I was intrigued by what you had to say. I hope we can talk about the book in class!
Hey Ryan,
I think if I ever get the chance to look back on my life after death, looking back on loved ones would be probably my focus. I’d obviously also want to re-live some my childhood and remember all those fond innocent memories of building Lego and playing sports, but ultimately what I’d like to remember most are those closest to me. One of the main things we leave behind is our impact on others, so I’d want to know how people would remember/think of me.
-Nathan Harris
Hi Ryan,
Great blog post, I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this weeks novel!
To answer your discussion question – I think it would be a crazy experience to have the chance to reflect on your life once you’ve passed away. I think love is one of the most important things for humans, it is a basic need we all need and deserve. I believe love is connected to many other aspects of our lives, and having love is incredibly important to living a happy and healthy life. So reflecting on my life I think love would be centred around a lot of my reflection, and I am very grateful for all the people in my life I love and love me.
Look forward to reading more of your work!
Have a nice week 🙂
Hi Ryan,
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts about The Shrouded Woman. Being someone who hasn’t read Nadja but knows its main points, I thought it was intriguing to hear how another book related to this one. If I were to look back on my life I think love might be one of the most important if not the most important thing that is and was present in my life.
Hi Ryan, since I didn’t read Nadja it was interesting to read the potential connection between the novels. Answering your question, love would be important as love is something you assign to stuff that is important to you.