Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Jesse Matz
Abstract
The modernist movement of the early 20th century is defined by formal experimentation and avant-garde sensibilities. The still-life genre, then, with its long history within the traditional art historical canon and highly representational nature, may seem an odd place to look for modernist literary inspiration. Even so, the writing of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield is saturated with meditations on fruit bowls, tea cups, and vases that, while distinctly literary, resonate with still-life paintings. In their work, objects shape the worldview of their characters, offering a new way to understand the modernist interest in depicting human subjectivity. In addition, Woolf and Mansfield’s focus on decorative objects within the domestic sphere facilitates feminist social critique. In this thesis, I establish what I call still-life aesthetics as a modus operandi for modernist women to rethink objecthood, transcend divisions between creative disciplines, and artistically encapsulate the feminine experience. I investigate the use of still-life aesthetics as feminist social critique in Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse (1927) and in Mansfield’s short stories “How Pearl Button was Kidnapped” (1912), “The Daughters of the Late Colonel” (1921), and “Miss Brill” (1920). I read these works alongside paintings by modernist women artists in order to demonstrate the intermedial breadth of still-life aesthetics while also emphasizing the literary specificity of Woolf and Mansfield’s still life techniques. Using an interdisciplinary approach that melds art historical theory and literary analysis, I argue that Woolf and Mansfield use the still-life aesthetic to reframe the object as an integral component of the human experience. Human subjectivity has long been considered the primary force driving innovation in modernist literature. In asserting also the powerful influence of the object over subjective perception, still life aesthetics offers an artistic framework through which the trivialized and marginalized can be acknowledged and celebrated.
Recommended Citation
Lin, Brittany, "Sketching Stillness: Intermedial Still-Life Aesthetics in Modernist Women’s Writing" (2026). Honors Theses. 1012.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/honorstheses/1012
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