Modernism
The Waves may represent the peak of Woolf's Modernist aesthetics. Why, you may ask?
Ah, we're glad you asked! Here you go:
- It takes some pretty hefty risks with narrative perspective and structure (which are kind of Modernism's bread and butter).
- The six narrators may or may not actually represent different facets of a single consciousness, which is pretty trippy and daring, even by Modernist standards.
- Each chapter begins with mysterious chapter introductions that draw abstract connections between phases of the 24-hour day (and the rhythms of the tide) to stages of the characters' lives. Playing with form and structure is totally Modernist.
- The novel's narrative style often leaves the reader disoriented with respect to where the characters are located (both physically and in time)—also totally Modernist.
Thanks to all of the above, The Waves is a masterpiece of Modernist experimentation. Eat your heart out, Joyce.