Paper 106: The Twentieth century Literature: 1900 to World War I

A Biography without Boundaries

Gender and Identity in ‘Orlando’

Assignment of Paper 106: The Twentieth century Literature: 1900 to World War I

#Table of Content:

1. Abstract

2. Keywords

3. Introduction

4. Gender as a Social Construct

 4.1 Orlando’s Transition: a shameless Shift

4.2 Theatricality and Performativity

4.3 Multiplicity and the Androgynous Mind

5. Historical and Cultural Critique

5.1 Elizabethan England: A Man’s World

5.2 18th-Century Femininity: Constraints and Expectations

5.3 19th-Century Victorian Morality: The Weight of Tradition

5.4 20th Century: Identity in Flux

6. Intertextuality and Feminist Discourse

6.1 Influence of Vita Sackville-West

6.2 Queer and Feminist Readings

7. Narrative Structure and Literary Experimentation

7.1 Biographer’s Voice and Authorial Play

7.2 Fluid Time and Memory

8. Conclusion

9. References

Personal Information:

Name:- Khushi Goswami

Batch:- M.A.Sem 1 (2024-2026)

Enrollment no:- 5108240001

E-mail Address:- khushigoswami05317@gmail.com

Roll no:- 8

Assignment Details:

Topic:- A Biography without Boundaries   

Paper :- 106 The Twentieth Century Literature: 1900 to 1995

Subject Code: 22399

Submitted To:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar

Date of Submission:-

1)Abstract:- 

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography is a groundbreaking exploration of gender and identity, transcending traditional norms through its protagonist’s transformation across centuries and sexes. By depicting Orlando’s seamless transition from male to female and their existence beyond rigid gender binaries, Woolf critiques the socially constructed nature of gender and challenges essentialist perspectives. This paper examines how Woolf deconstructs gender norms through Orlando’s metamorphosis, employing narrative strategies, historical context, and intertextual references. Drawing upon feminist and queer theories, the analysis underscores the novel’s radical engagement with fluid identity and performative gender roles. Woolf’s experimental biography reimagines selfhood as an evolving, unrestricted continuum, making Orlando a pivotal text in discussions on gender fluidity and identity politics.

2)Keywords:-  Virginia Woolf, Orlando, gender fluidity, identity, performativity, feminism, queer theory, biography

3)Introduction:- 

Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography (1928) is a pioneering novel that remakes the ideals of gender and identity. Framed as a biography, the novel chronicles Orlando, a nobleman who mysteriously changes sex and lives for more than three centuries. Woolf's experimental method challenges traditional gender binaries and mocks strict social norms. This paper discusses how Woolf subverts gender norms through the transformation of Orlando, the narrative strategies of the novel, and its wider socio-political ramifications.

“For it is a strange fact, but nobody ever notices a woman’s name in the newspapers. 

You might say a woman’s name a thousand times and it would mean nothing. But say a man’s once and it is like a thunderclap.” (Woolf #)

 

4)Gender as a Social Construct:

Woolf's Orlando defies essentialist gender ideologies by representing gender as something fluid and not fixed. Orlando's transition from man to woman is not traumatic but rather highlights the arbitrariness of gender roles. The novel implies that gender is a performative role society assigns us and not some biological fact.

4.1) Orlando’s Transition: a shameless Shift

In contrast to the usual narratives of transformation, Orlando's transformation is demythologized in a natural progression of events and not a crisis point. Woolf thus says, "He stretched himself. He rose. He stood upright before us, and while the trumpets peeled Truth! Truth! Truth! we have no choice left but to confess—he was a woman." This episode avoids usual notions of gender transition without medicalizing or dramatizing the transition. The book resists depicting Orlando's change as an aberration, rather than normalizing fluid identity.

4.2) Theatricality and Performativity

Working with Judith Butler's idea of gender performativity, Orlando by Woolf preempts the notion that gender is performed as opposed to being inborn. Orlando's life illustrates how gender roles are projected as opposed to being inborn. As a male, Orlando is privileged by masculinity; as a female, Orlando is bound by patriarchal roles. Woolf satirizes these man-made demarcations by using humor and irony, illustrating the foolishness of strict gender roles.

4.3)Multiplicity and the Androgynous Mind

Woolf’s notion of the “androgynous mind,” which she later articulated in A Room of One’s Own, is vividly embodied in Orlando. The protagonist possesses both male and female qualities, suggesting that creativity and identity flourish in a state that transcends binaries. Woolf advocates for a fluid synthesis of genders, implying that rigid categorization limits personal and artistic expression.

5)Historical and Cultural Critique

Woolf places Orlando's metamorphosis in a historical context, showing how gender roles shift over centuries. Every period introduces new gender limitations, proving the malleability of identity as culture changes.

5.1)Elizabethan England: A Man’s World

In the Elizabethan period, Orlando thrives as a young nobleman, engaging in duels, poetry, and diplomatic affairs. His masculinity affords him autonomy and privilege, reflecting the male-dominated structure of the time. However, Woolf subtly critiques this power dynamic by highlighting the performative nature of male identity, which relies on aggression and conquest.

5.2)18th-Century Femininity: Constraints and Expectations:

When Orlando wakes up as a woman in the 18th century, she is immediately faced with limiting ideals of femininity. Her transformation is not only physical but also social—she must wear heavy dresses and observe decorum. Woolf satirizes the strictness of gender norms by illustrating Orlando's frustration with these limitations, revealing their absurdity.

“She remembered how, as a young man, she had insisted that women must be obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely apparelled. ‘Now I shall have to pay in my own person for those desires,’ she reflected; ‘for women are not (judging by my own short experience of the sex) obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely apparelled by nature.” (Woolf #)

This quote underscores the irony Woolf uses to confront patriarchal norms. Orlando’s new perspective as a woman allows her to experience the restrictions she once endorsed, revealing the unjust expectations society imposes based on gender.

5.3)19th-Century Victorian Morality: The Weight of Tradition

As Orlando steps into the Victorian age, she finds herself increasingly hemmed in by notions of domesticity and propriety. It is an age that best represents the pinnacle of gender essentialism, solidifying the image of women as passive and dependent. Woolf takes advantage of this era to highlight the oppressive aspects of gender roles, setting them in relief against the previous freedom of Orlando.

5.4)20th Century: Identity in Flux:

In the final chapters, Orlando enters the 20th century—a period of increasing liberation and transformation. She drives a car, writes poetry, and embraces modernity. This era marks a turning point where identity begins to be viewed more subjectively. Woolf’s vision becomes prophetic, foreseeing future debates about gender, autonomy, and self-definition in an increasingly digital and online-based world.

6)Intertextuality and Feminist Discourse:

Woolf’s Orlando engages with literary history, feminist theory, and queer discourse to challenge dominant gender narratives.

6.1)Influence of Vita Sackville-West:

Orlando’s character is inspired by Woolf’s lover, Vita Sackville-West, whose own gender nonconformity and aristocratic background inform the novel’s themes. Through Orlando, Woolf pays tribute to Vita’s androgynous identity, celebrating a fluid and expansive conception of selfhood.

6.2)Queer and Feminist Readings:

Modern feminist and queer theorists, including Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, have interpreted Orlando as a subversive text that challenges hegemonic gender structures. Butler’s notion of performativity aligns with Woolf’s depiction of gender as a series of performed behaviors rather than an inherent truth. Orlando’s fluctuating identity reflects the instability of gender, reinforcing the idea that it is a cultural construct rather than a biological imperative.

7)Narrative Structure and Literary Experimentation:

Woolf’s choice to frame the novel as a biography, complete with mock scholarly footnotes and historical commentary, allows her to parody both literary conventions and gender assumptions. The novel blurs the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, male and female, past and present.

7.1)Biographer’s Voice and Authorial Play:

The intrusive, often humorous voice of the narrator calls attention to the artifice of biography itself. The biographer is frequently exasperated by Orlando’s unpredictability, mirroring society’s frustration with identities that defy categorization. This metafictional device challenges readers to question the reliability of narrators—and of normative truths about gender.

7.2)Fluid Time and Memory:

Time in Orlando is flexible, mirroring the subjective nature of experience. Centuries go by with minimal alteration to Orlando's emotional reality, highlighting the internal rather than chronological self. Woolf subverts linear time to support the theme of continuity in selfhood, despite the alteration of external roles and bodies.

“Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality, has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time.” (Woolf #)

This quote captures Woolf’s deeper philosophical view of identity as unaffected by chronological time, suggesting a more fluid, non-linear understanding of the self.

8)Conclusion:

Virginia Woolf's Orlando defies traditional gender constructs, demonstrating the performative and fluidity of identity. In creating a hero who exists outside fixed binaries, Woolf mocks the limitations that society and history have placed on people. By means of a synthesis of satire, historical criticism, and intertextuality, Orlando continues to be a landmark text in feminist and queer literary studies.

In the current age, with online personas and expressions of gender being more and more diverse, Orlando remains pertinent. The book pushes the reader towards embracing multiplicity and opposing single labels. Woolf's biography without walls is not simply the story of the change of a single person but a declaration of liberty for identity in general personal, social, and creative.

References : 

Melita, Maureen M., and Muareen M. Melita. “GENDER IDENTITY AND ANDROGYNY IN LUDOVICO ARIOSTO’S ‘ORLANDO FURIOSO’ AND VIRGINIA WOOLF’S ‘ORLANDO: A BIOGRAPHY.’” Romance Notes, vol. 53, no. 2, 2013, pp. 123–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43803261 . Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

WATKINS, SUSAN. “Sex Change and Media Change: From Woolf’s to Potter’s ‘Orlando.’” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, 1998, pp. 41–59. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44029810 . Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Peacock Books, 2008.

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