Virginia Woolf and The hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002)
vulnerability, performativity and resistance
pp. 215-239
in: Ana Falcato, Antonio Cardiello (eds), Philosophy in the condition of modernism, Berlin, Springer, 2018Abstract
Following the framework of this volume, we are interested in questioning the categories of modernism and postmodernism in relation to the feminist debate. In order to do that, we will look into the film The Hours. Based on Michael Cunningham's 1998 novel, the film focuses on three women (one of them being modernist writer Virginia Woolf) whose lives are interconnected through the novel Mrs. Dalloway. It is our contention that the workings of the film's narrative display a correlation between feminist issues throughout different historical contexts that dismantle the conceptualization of modernism against postmodernism. To guide us in our arguments, we will be drawing upon Judith Butler's theory on the politics of performativity, specifically, her approach to how the gendered subject is constructed discursively and the concepts of vulnerability and resistance in relation to it.
