ABSTRACT

In Between the Acts, Virginia Woolf exposes a bleak and chilling vision of the police. Bulge, an actor disguised as a policeman, presents his work as a ‘whole-time, white man’s job’ supervising the toil and suffering of the oppressed. The violence of this statement begs the question: what was Woolf’s own attitude towards the police? In this respect, it is possible to find a certain continuity in her fiction. Although they mainly appear as banal, sometimes reassuring, background presences, policemen are also keepers of the social order. Their actions are shown to buttress ideological forces, especially those of patriarchy and Empire. However, this paper argues that Woolf’s understanding of the role of the police in relation with these powers evolved throughout her works – from a mere analogy in Jacob’s Room, to a much more concrete system of rituals and interpellations, resembling those theorised by Louis Althusser and Jean-Jacques Lecercle. Furthermore, this change in style accompanied a change in stance: as she realised the extent of ideological power on individuals, Woolf’s notion of resistance also shifted, from a focus on wandering and personal evasion to a more communal and political approach, which crystallised in a form of artistic ‘counter-interpellation’.

摘要

在幕间，弗吉尼亚伍尔夫揭露了警察的阴暗和令人不寒而栗的愿景。Bulge 是一名伪装成警察的演员，将他的工作描述为“全职白人的工作”，监督被压迫者的辛劳和苦难。这一声明的暴力引出了一个问题：伍尔夫自己对警察的态度是什么？在这方面，可以在她的小说中找到某种延续性。尽管他们主要表现为平庸的、有时令人放心的背景存在，但警察也是社会秩序的维护者。他们的行为显示出支持意识形态力量，尤其是父权制和帝国的意识形态力量。然而，这篇论文认为伍尔夫对警察与这些权力相关的角色的理解在她的作品中不断发展——从仅仅类比于雅各布的房间，一个更具体的仪式和祈求系统，类似于路易斯阿尔都塞和让-雅克勒塞尔克尔的理论。此外，这种风格的变化伴随着立场的变化：随着她意识到意识形态对个人的影响程度，伍尔夫的抵抗概念也发生了转变，从关注流浪和个人逃避转向更加公共和政治的方法，具体化为艺术“反质询”的一种形式。