A Contrasting And Harmonious World

Virginia Woolf, an outstanding English novelist and critic, is famous for the fresh ideas, symbolic beauty and delicate taste in her works. She focuses her writing on women issues and dedicates her whole life to the pursuit of an ideal relationship between the sexes. The seemingly conflicting two human natures—the masculine principles of fact, reason, logos, and the feminine principles of imagination, intuition, and pathos—are also mutually dependent and complementary to each other. They should overcome their respective one-sided extremes and shortcomings to cooperate with each other. Woolf sees the harmonious cohabitation and cooperation of the two sexes as an ideal relationship between man and woman. Moreover, she spreads the ontological concept of androgyny into writing and puts forward the idea of androgyny in literary creation, which later becomes a very important theory in the feminist criticism. She emphasizes again and again that the single sex-consciousness is a big enemy of art, and an artist should be an individual with the two genders harmoniously united spiritually in his or her mind. Only thus, can the artist break through the constraint of the sexual prejudice and produce good writings outstanding not only in ideology but also in aesthetics. To the Lighthouse is eulogized as her best novel of androgyny and refinement. Therefore, the thesis devotes a large space to a close reading and thorough analysis of the novel to expound and explore Woolfs androgynous theory.The thesis is composed of six parts. Part 1 offers the background information of the academic researches on Virginia Woolf at home and abroad and briefs on the content of the following parts. Part 2 presents a brief introduction to Woolfs life and works. Woolfs unique life experience actually has great influence on her writing and outlook, and the shadow of her family members can be frequently seen in her writings. This point is reasserted in Part 3, the development of Woolf's feminist thought. The intimate and consonant relationship between Woolf's parents deeply impinges upon her feministic view of man-woman relationship. Additionally, the Bloomsbury Group helps her establish self-confidence as a female writer under the pressure of the masculine discourse hegemony and realize that man and woman are equal both in personality and in spirit. Then the thesis takes her novel To the Lighthouse as a case study, analyzing it from feminist perspective, and devotes a large space to discussing Woolf's concept of androgyny. Part 4 stresses the dual opposition and difference of the two genders reflectedby the Ramsay couple in the novel To the Lighthouse. Woolf claims that there are psychological and intellectual differences between the two sexes, but simultaneously they are mutually complementary and dialectically united. Thus, Part 5 dwells on the harmonious union of the two sexes—androgyny. In the novel, the two gender forces working together contribute to the fulfillment of the delayed trip to the lighthouse, the solving of James' hatred toward his father and the completion of Lily's painting. Woolf not only considers androgyny as a key to solving the problems of women, of the gender relationship, but also employs it in art creation. Part 6 explains what an androgynous mind is and how it functions in literary creation. To Woolf, androgyny is the best writing state, in which a writer can make a perfect artistic expression. Woolf puts what she advocates in her writing. In To the Lighthouse, she demonstrates "an androgynous mind" in her writing through Lily's painting process, carefully works out a male-female model for the structure of the novel, and employs some symbols indicating gender characteristics and some fable and poems in the novel to illustrate her theory.Aiming at the gender opposition, Woolf raises doubts and gives some solutions. The first way is to transpose the unequal levels of man and woman. And the other way is to incorporate the characteristics of man and woman into harmony. Woolf s androgyny brings a burst of revolutionary and vanguard vigor into the western patriarchal society. It deconstructs the male-centered binary opposition and revolts against the masculine value. It shows that Woolfs androgynous ideal is much profounder than the feminism of her time and even that of modern time. Some feminists go to the extreme—they aim to deconstruct the old patriarchal world but construct a matriarchal one. But what Woolf calls for is a multiplication of different perspectives in literature and in life. She endorses sexual differences as non-exclusive and as multiple, and seeks to go beyond the old binary oppositions. Even in the modem time, her feminism is still a key to pursuing a perfect human existing environment, where man and woman live in harmony together. When people are troubled by cultural, ethnic or religious conflicts nowadays, we can still turn to WoolPs idea for help, which stresses coexistence and harmony rather than opposition and dominance. Therefore, the study of Woolfs feminism is of great necessity and of current significance.