The Fluidity Of Identity In Orlando:A Biography

Virginia Woolf is one of the most revolutionary and avant-garde writers of the twentieth century. Experiencing the aftermath of WWI and the Modernist Movement, she stood at the turning point of the time reexamining all the traditional patterns. The novel Orlando:A Biography, though regarded as "an escapade" by Woolf, has attracted many scholars’ attention because of its fantastic content and innovative style. It tells the story of Orlando, a young nobleman who lives in the Elizabethan England. Over more than three centuries, Orlando becomes a woman during her sojourn in Constantinople and witnesses various historical changes. In Orlando, due to his/her change of sex and traveling through time and space, the protagonist Orlando gains a unique perspective to ponder upon such issues as gender, culture and history. This fantastic novel combines biographical and fictional elements, and it highlights Woolf’s exploration into the identity issues.Though scholars and critics over decades have made a comprehensive research on this novel, their perspectives covering feminism, androgyny, social context, literary style, etc., there is not yet an intensive and systematic study on the theme of fluid identity in this novel. This thesis explores Woolf’s concept of identity through analysis of Orlando’s three kinds of identities. Stuart Hall states that the subject acquires different kinds of identities in different times and identification is in a constant process. This thesis tries to discuss the topic of fluid identity in terms of the gender identity, national/cultural identity and historical identity.By adopting Judith Butler’s theory of gender performance, this thesis demonstrates how Orlando "performs" the male and female roles. The novel also presents the fracture and failure during gender performance and "citation" as well as the conscious disobedience against the interpellation and rules. Because of these, Orlando’s gender identity is not fixed but in a constant fluidity. As to the cultural identity, Orlando’s British national identity endows him with a certain cultural identity, which is constructed and confirmed by political system and cultural heritage. Orlando’s life experience in Turkey after her sexual transformation offers her a new perspective in observing her previous cultural identity. Orlando’s flanerie in modern London at the end of the novel indicates that Woolf regards modern city as a "Thirdspace" in which multiple cultures co-exist in hybridity. Meanwhile as a city "flaneuse", Orlando tends to possess a hybrid and fluid cultural identity.Finally, in terms of literary style, Woolf challenges the traditional historical writing in the Victorian age by combining "granite and rainbow"--fact and fiction. Free from the limitation of the clock time and choosing the artful portrait instead of the literal and detailed description of the protagonist’s life and history, she portrays a fictitious character, depicts his/her fluid identity shifting between fact and fiction, and reveals the rich implication of the character hidden underneath the traditional historical writings.Through Woolf’s demonstration of fluid identity in Orlando, such power discourses as the hierarchies of male/female, east/west, and history/fiction are challenged. Woolf criticizes British mainstream ideology which stands for the interest of the male and the ruling class, and effectively undermines and renovates the dominant position of traditional historical writings on which British mainstream ideology exerts profound influence. Woolf’s exploration into the identity issue reflects her deep concern about human being’s existence and about the effective way of eliminating war and conflicts in the world.