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Feminism in the Work of Virginia Woolf 20 Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Regina Blatová Orlando: Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. 2018 Bibliografický záznam Blatová, Regina. Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf: bakalářská práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Fakulta pedagogická, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2018. 60 s. Vedoucí bakalářské práce Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. Bibliography Blatová, Regina. Feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2018. 60 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. Anotace Tato práce se zabývá tématem feminismu v díle Virginie Woolf. Teoretická část práce se zaměřuje na biografii Virginie Woolf, její literární činnost a historii feminismu s důrazem na období tzv. první vlny feminismu. Analytická část se ve svém úvodu věnuje postoji Virginie Woolf k feministickému hnutí a představuje její eseje zabývající se feministickou tematikou, jmenovitě “A Room of One Own’s” a “Three Guineas”. Stěžejní část analýzy tvoří výklad románu Orlando z pohledu feminismu, zahrnující témata jako androgynie, genderové role a ženský oděv. V rámci jednotlivých kapitol je na dějové linii románu vysvětlen pohled Virginie Woolf na tehdejší roli ženy ve společnosti a kritiku společenských konvencí. Práce zkoumá, jak se v průběhu historie vyvíjela pozice žen ve Velké Británii a jak společenské konvence ovlivnily životy žen. Abstract This thesis deals with a topic of feminism in the works of Virginia Woolf. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the biography of Virginia Woolf, her literary work, and the history of feminism with emphasis on the period of the so-called First-wave feminism. The analytic part introduces Woolf’s attitude towards feminist movement and presents her essays dealing with feminist topics, namely “A Room of One´s Own” and “Three Guineas”. The principal part of the analysis consists of the interpretation of the novel Orlando from the feministic point of view, including themes such as androgyny, gender roles, and female clothes. Within each chapter, Virginia Woolf's view of the woman's role in society and criticism of social conventions is explained in the narrative line of the novel. The thesis explores how the position of women in British society developed throughout the history, and how social conventions influenced women’s lives. Klíčová slova Virginia Woolf, Orlando, feminismus, genderové role, androgynie Keywords Virginia Woolf, Orlando, feminism, gender roles, androgyny I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Regina Blatová Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Jiří Šalamoun, Ph.D. for his kind support, valuable advice and time dedicated to my work. I would also like to thank my mother for her help throughout all my studies. Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7 2. Biography ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.1. Childhood ................................................................................................................... 9 2.2. Bloomsbury group .................................................................................................... 10 2.3. Mental instability and death ..................................................................................... 11 3. Work ............................................................................................................................. 12 3.1. Novels ....................................................................................................................... 13 3.2. Essays ........................................................................................................................ 17 4. Feminism .................................................................................................................. 19 4.1. Early feminism .......................................................................................................... 20 4.2. First-wave feminism ................................................................................................. 20 4.3. Woman’s suffrage ..................................................................................................... 22 5. The topic of feminism in the work of Virginia Woolf ................................................. 24 6. Orlando ......................................................................................................................... 29 6.1. First chapter .................................................................................................................. 33 6.2. Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................... 35 6.3. Chapter three ............................................................................................................. 38 6.4. Chapter four .............................................................................................................. 42 6.5. Chapter five ............................................................................................................... 48 6.6. Chapter six ................................................................................................................ 51 7. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 54 8. Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 56 6 1. Introduction Virginia Woolf is without any doubt one of the most important female writers in history. Her literary work made a significant contribution to the feminist movement in which Woolf herself took an active part, not only as an author but also as a suffragist. Although, surprisingly, her attitude towards feminism was not always completely confident (see chapter 5), her work has remained a popular subject of study until present days. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the work of Virginia Woolf in the context of feminism. For this purpose, Woolf’s novel Orlando is a perfect choice because it does not cover only a particular feminists’ topics of that particular time but also covers a large range of issues throughout history such as the impact of social conventions on female clothes in different time periods. Orlando is influenced by Woolf’s intimate relationship with Vita Sackville-West. Although their relationship had not lasted, they had a significant influence on one another’s literary work. Since Sackville-West was not a feminist herself, Woolf might have wanted to convey the importance of feminism to her through the androgynous character of Orlando who struggles to be himself/herself in the world tied up by conventions (Pawlowski, 2003, p. xiv). The personality of Orlando is depicted as the ideal embodiment of androgyny. Woolf conceived androgynous self as a perfect being consisting of both masculine and feminine traits and therefore erasing the difference between gender roles. Woolf’s criticism of gender roles is interwoven with feminism because the women’s role has always been much more constricted by the social conventions than male’s one. The first two chapters present Virginia Woolf’s extraordinary life and her literary work. The third chapter briefly introduces the history of feminism. All three chapters are theoretical and they provide basis for the understanding of feminist features in Orlando, 7 which is written in a style of the mock-biographical novel. Mock-biography novels contain biographical elements, which are, however, modified and therefore mix fiction with facts (see chapter 6). The analytic part deals with the common feministic topics in Woolf’s work, especially her two feministic essays “A Room of One’s Own” and “Three Guineas”, which are often referred to in the analysis of Orlando as they provide an explanation to many parts of the text with feministic context. The core of the thesis examines the novel Orlando from the feministic point of view. The novel Orlando is divided and analysed by the individual chapters since the storyline is chronological and oversees the evolution of the world and the main character. This progress is one of the themes in the novel as it reveals the change of conventions in the society over more than three centuries. Virginia Woolf was an extraordinary person full of contradictions. Being born as a woman in the Victorian era made her becoming a writer more demanding to achieve than it was for her male peers. Luckily, her life spanned over two contradictory eras, which enabled her to contribute with her writing to the raising campaign fighting for women’s rights. However, in her private life, she was fighting her own battle with her mental illness which she eventually lost. Yet her literary legacy has remained relevant also in the present as her novels are being widely read and Orlando lives not only on paper but also in the theatre and film adaptations. 8 2. Biography Since Virginia Woolf’s childhood and growing up had an immense impact on her perception of, at the time, strictly
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