Virginia Woolf was a pioneer of the 'stream of consciousness' narrative, a technique that attempts to mimic the continuous flow of thoughts in the human mind. Her 1927 novel 'To the Lighthouse' is a masterclass in this style. The book is famous for its middle section, 'Time Passes,' which describes the decaying of a house over ten years in just a few pages, while the humans are absent. Woolf was a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group, an influential circle of English writers and intellectuals. She challenged the traditional 'materialist' novel, arguing that literature should focus on the 'luminous halo' of life rather than external facts. Her essay 'A Room of One's Own' became a cornerstone of feminist literary theory, famously stating that women need financial independence and private space to be creative.