Abstract: Virginia Woolf is recognized as a major twentieth-century author, a great novelist and a feminist. It is well acknowledged that it is Virginia Woolf who formally proposed the idea of androgyny in the field 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 androgyny, but also applied the idea to her works. Orlando is the most fantastic one among her works. It describes Orlando’s about four centuries’ life. During this time, Orlando transformed from a man to a woman and different suffers. This thesis aims to analyze Woolf’s androgyny thought through Orlando.

This thesis attempts to discuss the theory of androgyny in Orlando from feminist view. Chapter one points out some Virginia Woolf’s famous works and the history of androgyny. Chapter two is about Virginia Woolf's androgyny idea. Chapter three introduces the novel Orlando and intends to analyze how Woolf displays her androgynous theory by creating a spokesperson for androgyny-Orlando, focusing on Orlando’s struggle and confusion after sex change. Orlando has enjoyed a privileged life when he was a young man with blue blood, but after he becomes a woman, Lady Orlando has to struggle for her basic rights in the patriarchal society. The thesis tries to find out what is the root cause of Orlando’s different experiences at different stages. Furthermore, the thesis is devoted to exploring to what extent Woolf has successfully attacked the sexism and what the deficiencies are in her androgynous theory.

Keywords:  Woolf   Androgyny   Orlando   Feminism

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Literary Achievements-1

1.2 History of Androgyny-1

1.2.1 Study in Abroad-1

1.2.2 Study in China-2

Chapter Two Formation of Woolf’s Androgynous Idea-3

2.1 Parents’ Influence-3

2.2 The Influence of Bloomsbury Group-3

2.3 Social Influence-4

Chapter Three Androgyny in Orlando-5

3.1 A Brief Introduction to Orlando-5

3.2 The Influence of Sex Change on Orlando-6

3.2.1 Orlando’s Struggle-6

3.2.2 Orlando’s Vacillation-8

Chapter Four Conclusion-12

References-13