Beyond Gender Search For Self

Virginia Woolf, who is among the most famous British female writers in the20th century, for the first time, brought the androgyny ideas into literature works, changing the ordinary ways of expression of literary criticism, providing another possibility for human self-reflection.This thesis, based on the intepretability of the text of Orlando, tries to explore the following issues one by one:given the discourse power of society, what kind of defects underlie under the separated sex roles? whether the fixed gender norms have suppressed or even obliterated our sense of freedom as individuals? what kind of world outlook is Woolf trying to show us by creating Orlando, the image of androgyny? whether the binary opposition between man and woman is truly good for their self-development? how can we break through the trap of sex roles and find out the true self? Those questions are what this paper attempts to explore through the interpretation of Orlando, in the hope of finding out a way leading to the harmonious self-development. The thesis is constructed in parallel with or based on the text of Orlando, in correspondence with the parts of the original novel. It is divided in three parts:The first chapter,"the male role in the operation of power", in the perspective of inner reflection of the hero Orlando himself, analyses the intrinsic self of Orlando, according to Lacan’s mirror theory, and furthermore, explores the hidden real self in the gradual internalization, and the revealing of it by the inflection of others, of Orlando’s role of male-sex by further analysis of the power of discourse.The second chapter,"the changing role of the female in the discourse", upon Orlando’s, changing from male to female, shows how power works in the role of the female, throughout the analysis about Orlando’s adaptation to the now female role in the light of Foucault’s power-discourse theory regarding the disciplining of body. On this basis, it deals with Orlando’s attempt to avoid or overturn the male-centred discourse power by wandering between male and female in the form of dressing or costume-changing between, featuring the transformation of Orlando’s female role in the discourse power. The third chapter,"from deconstruction to harmony", by close reading, interprets how Woolf, using the narrative technique of defamiliarization, leads readers to give second and serious thought to sex and self, and then refers to the concept of androgyny as a means to deconstruct the power of discourse in the form of binary opposition between the two sexes, in the pursuit of harmonious self-development.The conclusion part, as a summary, points out the relevance of the experience of "Orlando" and "us". With the idea of androgyny in the novel Orlando, Woolf breaks through the plight of gender roles, not only setting an example to us in the free development at present, but also providing a valuable research model for the harmonious development of ourselves.