“ A Sketch of the Past” --Things to Think About

-->Pattern of Censorship: do you see a pattern in what Leaksa choose to exclude from the text? (Leaska is a traditional, old-fashioned Woolf scholar)
-->Text itself (Not just what it tells her about her life, though that is important)

Plot – What is the structure of this piece? Is there any?

How does she organize her thoughts? Do you see patterns of repetition, climax etc?

Is there any way this is structured like a novel? Or is it more like a poem?

 Character –

Who are the most important people in her life? (we’ll need to think about to what degree they show up again in her novels)

  How does Woolf see character and the possibility of knowing character? How does she describe others?

How does Woolf present herself as a character? What are some of the characteristics of the autobiographical narrator?

Theme – Can we use “Sketch” as a way of beginning to identify the major themes/concerns in Woolf’s work? Start a list.

  Northrop Frye believes the thematic content of a work is often carried through is imagery. Do you find any repeated patterns of images in “Sketch”? What are these images about?