Transcending Gender

Orlando is a romantic legend written by Virginia Woolf.This novel describes the fantastic story that a 16-year-old boy grew up into a 36-year-old woman after four centuries.Many scholars at home and abroad have studied this work in different aspects,but few have paid attention to Woolf’s reader consciousness,and there are disputes about the gender issue in Orlando.Based on Jauss and Iser’s Reception Aesthetics,this thesis analyses how Woolf expresses her brand new understanding about gender by describing Orlando’s experiences in different periods from the perspective of readers.With the help of the theory of Reception Aesthetics,this thesis aims to study the gender issues in Orlando from the perspective of readers.From the angle of “horizon of expectation”,this thesis will elaborate how the novel meets the readers’ “horizon of expectation” and surpasses the readers’ “horizon of expectation”.Then,this thesis analyses the “response-inviting structure” in Orlando and explores how the “blank” in Orlando stimulates readers’ imagination to express Woolf’s view on gender.Finally,it analyses “implied reader” in the novel to show how Orlando removes the gender label and realizes the value of life.In the process of communicating with readers constantly,Woolf’s profound thoughts are revealed.This study aims to supplement the study of readers’ consciousness of the novel by exploring Woolf’s view on gender through the creation of Orlando.It can be seen that Woolf tries to show that it is not through the integration of the characteristics of the two sexes that people can get rid of the bondage of gender,but only through the transcendence of gender do they reach the natural state of authenticity.Woolf’s expectation of the future world is a world in which people can get freedom,happiness and truth without the gender label.Whether male or female,people should actively face life,rather than passively avoid problems.