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

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), a leading British feminist writer, lived through both world wars and depicted how the sounds of military weapons—cannons, bombers, and anti-aircraft guns—inflicted physical and psychological harm on civilians. The paper aims to interpret Woolf’s depictions of military weapon sounds using the concepts of the soundscape and Johan Galtung’s violence triangle to show how sonic warfare creates traumatic experiences for listeners. It also examines how post–First World War urban sounds (cars, airplanes) trigger traumatic memories and how the soundscape of air raids stimulates Woolf’s feminist reflections on war violence. Woolf links the essence of war violence to patriarchal norms and suggests that fleeting memories of pre-war idylls and serene countryside sounds can help address war-induced trauma.

The paper notes that Woolf’s auditory depictions of military weapon sounds have received limited scholarly attention. Building on R. Murray Schafer’s soundscape theory, earlier studies (e.g., Cuddy-Keane 2000; Frattarola 2005; Varga 2014; Clements 2019; Xu 2022; Zhou 2022) focused on sound technologies, music, and street sounds in Woolf. Work on violence in Woolf’s life and texts (Brewer 1999; Cole 2012; Zhu and Shen 2014) has explored childhood abuse and wartime violence. However, prior research has insufficiently examined the relationship between auditory writing and war violence in Woolf and has not adequately analyzed her reflections on war through auditory narration. The present study addresses this gap by linking weapon sounds to direct, structural, and cultural violence to read Woolf through a feminist lens.

This humanities study undertakes close readings of Woolf’s diaries, essays, and novels (including Jacob’s Room, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, The Years, Between the Acts, and the essay "Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid"). It applies concepts from sound studies (soundscape, sonic power) and Johan Galtung’s violence triangle (direct, structural, cultural violence) to categorize and interpret the traumatic impacts of weapon sounds and wartime/postwar urban acoustics on characters and listeners. The analysis integrates textual evidence (quoted passages of sonic scenes, metaphors, interruptions) with secondary scholarship (e.g., Schafer on sound imperialism; Caruth on trauma; Van der Kolk and Van der Hart on trauma memory retrieval) to trace how sound operates as a vector of violence and as a catalyst for feminist insight and potential healing.

- Direct violence: Woolf’s diaries from WWI and WWII capture the immediate terror of air raids—the hum, buzz, saw, and gunfire—producing sensations of pressure, danger, and horror. In fiction, distant gun sounds metaphorically foreshadow loss (Jacob’s Room), auditory deprivation in air raids heightens fear (The Years, “1917”), and buzzing warplanes intrude and fragment speech and perception (Between the Acts), exemplifying sonic “imperialism.” - Structural violence: Postwar urban sounds (car backfire, commercial airplane rumble, car horn, penny whistle) in Mrs. Dalloway trigger traumatic recall and auditory hallucinations in civilians and veterans (e.g., Septimus), illustrating delayed PTSD-like responses. The medical and social response—exemplified by Dr. Bradshaw’s isolationist “sense of proportion” regime and broader stigmatization of shell shock as a social disease—enacts structural violence that exacerbates suffering and contributes to Septimus’s suicide. The paper cites that bombs dropped from aeroplanes killed over 1000 British civilians during WWI, underscoring the basis for pervasive sonic threat. - Cultural violence: Wartime broadcasting legitimizes direct and structural violence by promoting nationalism, glorifying aerial combat, and framing killing under the banner of the nation. In “Thoughts on Peace in an Air Raid,” Woolf connects patriarchal culture (male “Hitlerism,” dominance, aggression) to war, noting the absence of women’s political voices as enabling factors. The essay employs a “stream of auditory consciousness,” where the air-raid soundscape provokes feminist critique and a countercurrent to militaristic media narratives. - Healing and peace: The sound-triggered epiphanies point to therapeutic resources in fleeting pre-war memories and serene countryside sounds (apple thud, owl hoot), offering a pathway to soothe trauma, counter aggression, and imagine peace.

The study demonstrates that framing Woolf’s auditory depictions within Galtung’s violence triangle clarifies how sound functions as a conduit of direct physical/psychological harm, as a trigger entangled with structural control and medical-diagnostic regimes, and as an instrument of cultural legitimization through media and patriarchal ideology. Centering sound reorients feminist readings of Woolf, showing how gendered power underwrites sonic warfare and how women’s political exclusion sustains the cycles of violence. The findings further suggest practical resonances: fostering restorative soundscapes and memory practices can help mitigate trauma, while critical engagement with media narratives can resist cultural violence. The paper extends its implications to contemporary conflicts (e.g., Russia–Ukraine), arguing that Woolf’s call to resist militaristic currents and to value quotidian, peaceful soundscapes remains salient for envisioning peace and for postwar urban design that supports recovery.

Across two world wars, Woolf depicts how weapon soundscapes inflict direct violence on the public and how postwar urban sounds reactivate traumatic memories, exposing structural violence against veterans. In the terrifying air-raid soundscape, she develops feminist insights linking war to patriarchal norms and cultural violence. Woolf envisions healing pathways in fleeting pre-war memories and tranquil rural sounds, offering ways to distance humanity from war’s violence. Although she did not live to see WWII’s end and struggled with auditory hallucinations herself, her portrayals provide a powerful critique of direct, structural, and cultural violence. The paper underscores contemporary relevance to ongoing conflicts and proposes that postwar “peace zones” should incorporate nature-rich urban design and natural soundscapes (birdsong, wind, water) to nurture inner tranquility and alleviate trauma.