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Virginia Woolf's Ambiguity

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As a predominant figure in the 20th century literary movement, Virginia Woolf is renowned for her stylistic innovativeness. Her talent in creating fiction along with sharp critical tongue; Woolf’s thoughts are divertive than most of the female writers. The modernity of both her literary texts and her critical thinking is quite extraordinary, and ‘Orlando’ can definitely be characterized as one of her most remarkable works. With controversial concept of gender, Woolf simply allows her protagonist Orlando to transform from male to female halfway through the novel and has created gender ambiguity. This separation of sex and gender ultimately results in Woolf’s embracing an androgynous harmony which is opposed to the standard societal dictum of sex. Traditional approach and set of expectations imposed by society make sex and gender intermingled with one another. But Woolf has questioned this social practice. In this thesis , I will try to explore the androgynous mind of Orlando in the light of Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’ and performativity in the context of Judith Butler’s theory .

Judith Butler’s discussion of sex and gender essentially disengages the misguided notion that sex and gender are intrinsically linked to each other. There is a stereotypical concept that a male has a masculine gender, whereas a female possesses a feminine gender. Butler asserts that there is no necessary connection between a person’s sex and gender. Butler’s interpretation of gender, similar to

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