Abstraction in Writing

Abstraction, both in the art and literary worlds, is characterized by shedding traditional rules in an attempt to make the reader or viewer experience emotions. In art, the rules that are shed are the concepts of realistic form and recognizable figures. In literature, the rules are linear plots and a single narrator. In art the concepts are replaced with broad, bright colors or interesting shapes and patterns. In literature it is stream of conscience narration and a non-linear plot. Mrs. Dalloway is an excellent example of abstract writing in literature. It challenging traditional methods of writing in a way that emphasizes emotion and personal experience above reason and facts. The unique and sometimes confusing style Woolf uses in her book is the interesting culmination of the ideas that created abstract art.