Unbounded Self: Androgyny In Orlando

The idea of androgyny, derived from Greek mythology, is a quite ancient idea. It is expressed in various aspects, such as the field of philosophy, religion, psychology, literature and so on. Many writers have used the idea consciously or unconsciously, but it was Virginia Woolf who proposed the idea formally for the first time in the sphere of literature. She mainly expressed the idea in her literary essay "A Room of One's Own". In this essay she claimed that only with an androgynous mind could a writer create great works. Woolf not only proposed the idea of androgyny, but also applied the idea to her creation of literary works, among which Orlando is the most fantastic one. It portrays Orlando's long life, which lasted for about four centuries, during which time Orlando transformed from a man to a woman halfway through the novel.Combining the analysis of the androgynous characters with androgyny as an ideal writing style, the thesis attempts to explore the double meanings of the idea of androgyny, that is, this idea as an ideal writing style as well as an ideal state of mind for human beings. The thesis first analyses the characters who bear the androgynous qualities, especially the main character Orlando and the influence of sex change on Orlando, and points out that one can transcend the gender barriers to achieve an unbounded self with an androgynous mind. In addition, the thesis explores how the idea of androgyny as an ideal writing style is embodied in the text. We may find that it is through the metonymic and metaphoric modes of language as well as shifts of narrative viewpoints that the text reaches an androgynous state.The idea of androgyny proposed by Woolf is so important and controversial that many feminist critics paid much attention to it, such as the American feminist Elaine Shawalter and the French feminist Helene Cixous. This shows that the idea of androgyny is not only beneficial for the readers to understand Woolf's artistic thoughts and her literary works, but may also widen the scope of feminist theory so that it may become more tolerant as it transcends the gender boundary.