Modern Fiction

The central literary device within Woolf’s essay is allusion—a reference to another writer, work, event, et cetera. By the second sentence of the essay, Woolf has referenced two authors besides herself: Henry Fielding and Jane Austen. Other writers populating “Modern Fiction” include Bennett, Wells, Hardy, Joyce, and Chekhov.

While allusions are often implied, Woolf’s are direct and frequent. Such references underline Woolf’s understanding of her subject matter (and therefore her qualification to discuss it) and illustrate her points. Without reference to Chekhov, for example, the essay’s discussion of Russian fiction would be vague. Woolf intends her essay to be a well-evidenced treatise, not one woven together from stray thoughts.

Woolf’s allusions also place her criticism—and by implication her work—within a busy field of writers and literary figures. One effect is to underline the many ways in which she suggests tradition must be done away with: Each subsequent reference adds to the pile of tired, Victorian writers who press down on the modern writer with the heavy weight of tradition.

Woolf is one of Modernism’s most famous employers of metaphor: a comparison of two things that are not literally alike. In this essay, she constructs a number of metaphors to illustrate her arguments about fiction.