The Notion of the Present in Leslie Scalapino's and Virginia Woolf's Works

Abstract

In my dissertation I address how and when the notion of time is perceived differently from the conventional classical linear notion of time; how the notion of time is related to and interwined with epistemological and ontological notions; and whether a different perception of time subverts and transgresses existing epistemological and ontological boundaries. I argue that both Virginia Woolf and Leslie Scalapino reject the conventional linear notion of time and the fixtity it causes. They put the present in the center of their notion of time and show its connection with epistemological and ontological notions which range from experience, perception, mind, reality and self. My dissertation focuses on that Woolf's and Scalapino's view of time and epistemological and ontological notions intract with these notions posed by the theory of relativity and quantum physics. I conclude that, as Woolf's and Scalapino's claim, the conventional notion of time and so existing epistemological and ontological notions are not adequate enough to understand and explain reality and self. Thus, new epistemological and ontological notions based on the notion of the present are needed.