Androgyny in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando Ningxin,Sun
What is androgyny? It says “Androgyny is the state of being neither distinctly masculine nor distinctly feminine” in the Collins dictionary. In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928), Orlando was such an androgynous person who was a man at first, then became a woman and eventually, she had both male and female characteristics. Actually, this mind can also be seen in Woolf’s other works, like A Room of One’s Own (1929)(CIVW, P50). But, it will mainly focus on androgyny Orlando in this paper.
The state of being androgynous of Orlando probably is from her being a “man” at the beginning not just after her gender-transition. …show more content…
First, it is a smart way for her to satirize the domination of man in literature at that time. As it can be seen from some descriptions that she revealed the fact that men writers didn’t show their respect to women writers, like “A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understandings, or will refuse...” (Orlando, p126 ). And women were also not encouraged to be educated or a writer. For example, “to deny a woman teaching least she may laugh at you” (Orlando, p94); “and as long as she writes little notes nobody objects to a woman writing either” (Orlando, p160). The Oak Tree written by Orlando first was not be appreciated by Nicholas Greene, whose works were adored by Orlando. However, after the so-called gender-transition, The Oak Tree was awarded and made a hit. Ironically, she finally became a writer three hundred years later. Woolf used the success of Orando to speak out the unfair treatment to women, especially to female writers. In the meantime, androgyny healed her hurt feelings of a woman and made her ambition and angry placed. (CCVW, …show more content…
Feminist would use androgyny in her work to develop feminism.(CIVW, p130) However, others, like Elaine Showalter doubted this mind and criticized it as desex-uation.(VWCAIW, p97) However it is controversial, androgyny mind brought a new perspective to gender identify. What woolf was trying to say is a person should not be trapped in his or her sexual identity when achieving a development of mind and soul. Like Moi said, Woolf’ s androgyny is the deconstruction of sexual identity and of the duality masculinity-femininity... (CCVW,
What is androgyny? It says “Androgyny is the state of being neither distinctly masculine nor distinctly feminine” in the Collins dictionary. In Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1928), Orlando was such an androgynous person who was a man at first, then became a woman and eventually, she had both male and female characteristics. Actually, this mind can also be seen in Woolf’s other works, like A Room of One’s Own (1929)(CIVW, P50). But, it will mainly focus on androgyny Orlando in this paper.
The state of being androgynous of Orlando probably is from her being a “man” at the beginning not just after her gender-transition. …show more content…
First, it is a smart way for her to satirize the domination of man in literature at that time. As it can be seen from some descriptions that she revealed the fact that men writers didn’t show their respect to women writers, like “A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understandings, or will refuse...” (Orlando, p126 ). And women were also not encouraged to be educated or a writer. For example, “to deny a woman teaching least she may laugh at you” (Orlando, p94); “and as long as she writes little notes nobody objects to a woman writing either” (Orlando, p160). The Oak Tree written by Orlando first was not be appreciated by Nicholas Greene, whose works were adored by Orlando. However, after the so-called gender-transition, The Oak Tree was awarded and made a hit. Ironically, she finally became a writer three hundred years later. Woolf used the success of Orando to speak out the unfair treatment to women, especially to female writers. In the meantime, androgyny healed her hurt feelings of a woman and made her ambition and angry placed. (CCVW, …show more content…
Feminist would use androgyny in her work to develop feminism.(CIVW, p130) However, others, like Elaine Showalter doubted this mind and criticized it as desex-uation.(VWCAIW, p97) However it is controversial, androgyny mind brought a new perspective to gender identify. What woolf was trying to say is a person should not be trapped in his or her sexual identity when achieving a development of mind and soul. Like Moi said, Woolf’ s androgyny is the deconstruction of sexual identity and of the duality masculinity-femininity... (CCVW,