The Crack of Order: Sonic Politics and the Poetics of Resistance in To the Lighthouse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/3v7jzx43Keywords:
To the Lighthouse, Dialogic Theory, Sound, ResistanceAbstract
Drawing on Bakhtin’s dialogic theory, this paper explores the deep interaction between the order of sound and patriarchal politics in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. In the novel, the hegemonic voice, represented by Mr. Ramsay, constructs a hierarchical auditory order through philosophical discourse and social ritual, thereby permeating the domestic sphere with imperial logic. Conversely, female experience, natural rhythms, and marginal whispers continuously undermine this order, creating internal fissures within the text. Ultimately, through a polyphonic listening and an aesthetic reconstruction of reconciliation, the novel demonstrates a possibility of transcending singular authority and accommodating the coexistence of differences. This study attempts to reveal that Woolf not only deconstructs the patriarchal order through sonic narration but also, in her formal innovations, explores a poetic path of resistance oriented toward dialogue and coexistence.
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