Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Karem, Frederick

Subject Headings

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941 -- Criticism and interpretation, Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941, Friendship gallery, Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941, Orlando, Sex -- Fiction, Gender identity -- Fiction

Abstract

This is an examination of sex, gender, and androgyny in Virginia Woolf́⁰₉s ́⁰₋Friendships Gallerý⁰₊ and Orlando. These texts, written twenty years apart, highlight Woolf́⁰₉s development as a feminist who seeks to obliterate the assumed sex and gender binary. She accomplishes this through a mock biography format. Her first attempt highlights the androgynous nature of the main character Violet, whereas in Orlando her message of the constrictive nature of an assumed link between sex and gender is far more emphatically proven though the utilization of the titular character undergoing a biological sex change that ultimately leaves his/her gender unaffected

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