Analysis of “A Haunted House” By Virginia Woolf through the Lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics

Abstract

Systemic Functional Linguistics is a widely used approach for text analysis. It can also be used in teaching and translation studies. Recently, there has been a growing popularity of this approach in literary stylistics. “A Haunted House” by Virginia Wolf is a master piece which allows literary analysts to be entangled with whether it falls into the genre of love or supernatural. The paper aims to examine the theme selection and transitivity to discern how the genre being presented to the reader. The story has been analyzed at two levels. It explores its thematic structure and transitivity using qualitative method that is SFL and employs quantitative data analysis to present its findings. The paper examines 82 clauses and probes into the creation of supernatural genre. A careful analysis of data shows that material processes and unmarked themes with inanimate participants maintain the sense of supernatural whereas marked themes give prominence to time and place. The study paves a way to further endeavors to investigate the nature of text construction using SFL. It has some implications for translation studies and literary analysis.