Tempo e corpo nella Mrs Dalloway di Paul Ricœur

Abstract

This paper examines Paul Ricœur’s analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway in Time and Narrative, exploring an implicit link between temporal experience and corporeality. I argue that the concept of "mortal time" tacitly invokes the body through Ricœur’s categories of "action" and the "living present." Additionally, the study connects Ricœur’s interpretation with feminist critiques of Woolf’s "moments of being." By utilizing Julia Kristeva’s notion of the semiotic chora, the paper illustrates how these moments recover a temporal experience deeply rooted in the body’s materiality, bridging the gap between phenomenological time and physical existence.

Alongside this, the paper will explore the connection between Ricœur’s interpretation of time in Woolf and the analyses of Woolf’s “moments of being” developed by feminist critics. These readings highlight how such moments can recover an experience of time that is deeply intertwined with the materiality of the body – especially when considered through the lens of the semiotic dimension of the chora as theorised by Julia Kristeva.