Uma leitura sobre os insetos na festa de Mrs. Dalloway

Abstract

In Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre, Mrs. Dalloway’s party acts as a stage where characters interact and try out the masks which they deem necessary to a better social life. In the short story “The Introduction” (1973), Lily Everit reluctantly attends the party, but, marveled by the hostess’s vivacity and lightness, is transformed into a butterfly when invited to engage in conversation with an Oxford student. In the short story “The New Dress” (1927), the fly becomes a referent to the vulnerability that connects us as humans, trying to survive amidst the excesses of reality, generally speaking, and of the party, in particular. This article aims to analyze the figuration of the insects in the aforementioned short stories to reflect on the destabilization of the identities found in the party when the nonhuman element is presented as propelling the process of becoming that reshapes relationships among guests and ultimately among humans and nonhuman others.