"Listening to the zoom of a hornet": Virginia Woolf's feminist reflections on the sounds of military weapons and war violence

This paper explores Virginia Woolf's depiction of the psychological trauma inflicted by the sounds of military weapons during World War I and II. Using the concepts of soundscape and Johan Galtung's violence triangle, the authors analyze Woolf's diaries, novels, and essays to demonstrate how these sounds inflicted traumatic experiences on soldiers and civilians. The paper further investigates how post-war sounds, like cars and airplanes, triggered traumatic memories and how the soundscape of air raids led Woolf to feminist reflections on war violence and its connection to patriarchal norms. The authors argue that Woolf suggests fleeting memories of pre-war life and serene soundscapes as therapeutic approaches to war trauma.

Haifeng Zhu, Hui Ding, Weiyu Chen