(De)construction as Postcolonial Narrative Strategies: An Interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

The Waves, recognized as Virginia Woolf’s most poetic and experimental work, has prompted postcolonial critics to debate whether the novel is imperialistic or anti-imperialistic. This paper, however, seeks to reexamine the complex relationship between The Waves and the British Empire by analyzing both the novel’s construction and deconstruction narrative strategies. The study reveals that Woolf’s construction of the British Empire represents a self-evident collusion between literary work and the British Empire. However, its deconstruction does not signify the end of this collusive relationship. Instead, it gives way to a more implicit and even postmodern collusive relationship, which is established as Bernard, the intellectual, takes over the narration following the death of the traditional colonial hero Percival. While modern cultural colonization operates through “what is being said,” postmodern cultural colonization is more concerned with “who is speaking.” This latter form of cultural hegemony is fully embodied in Bernard’s narrative control.