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?