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Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
English
Date of Award
8-2001
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Isabel B. Stanley
Committee Members
Judith B. Slagle, William Styron Harris Jr.
Abstract
This thesis explores Woolf's concept of androgyny through a comparison of her nonfiction essay A Room of One's Own and her fiction-fantasy novel Orlando. Recent and past critical writings on Woolf and androgyny have been consulted, as well as primary sources including her works, private letters, and diaries. Woolf's concept of androgyny embodies a fundamental dilemma. In A Room of One's Own, Woolf calls for spiritual and mental androgyny while avidly supporting physical, social, and cultural differences between men and women. In Orlando, Woolf creates a character who is unable to reach mental androgyny because of social conditioning of gender and sex roles. The dilemma lies in Woolf's embrace of stereotypical ideas that distinguish men and women, while in the end, such differences inhibit the mental and spiritual androgyny she exalts. The findings shed new light on Woolf and the controversy of her "androgynous vision" by exposing the fundamental dilemma.
Document Type
Thesis - restricted
Recommended Citation
Holman, Crystal Gail, "The Dilemma of Woolf's Androgyny: A Close Look at Androgyny in A Room of One's Own and Orlando." (2001). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 106. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/106
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.