Maudsley Lecture | 'Mourning terminable and interminable: Loss, mourning and creativity in Virginia Woolf's work'

Inspired by Sigmund and Anna Freud’s explorations of loss and mourning, this paper will investigate some of the ways in which, though uncomfortable, experiences of loss can serve to stimulate development and creativity, via a consideration of the impact of the losses that Virginia Woolf experienced on the development of her writing.  I will try to illuminate the transformative potential of the work of mourning through a discussion of Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, written in the wake of both personal loss and social upheaval on a grand scale after World War One.