Breaking Boundaries: Exploring Gender Fluidity and Androgyny in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Abstract

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando remains a groundbreaking text that interrogates gender fluidity and the notion of androgyny while challenging the rigid binaries traditionally linked to identity. Through the extraordinary life of Orlando, who moves from male to female and spans several centuries, Woolf dismantles the idea of gender as a fixed biological reality, revealing it instead as a social and cultural construct. This paper engages feminist and queer theoretical frameworks to examine how Woolf portrays gender fluidity and androgyny, questioning the boundaries that separate male and female roles. By studying significant passages and the symbolism of Orlando’s transformation, the discussion argues that Woolf anticipates modern conversations around gender nonconformity, positioning Orlando as an essential text in debates on identity and self-expression. The paper also underscores Woolf’s enduring contribution to feminist and queer literature, showing how her narrative continues to resonate as a radical inquiry into the complexity of gender in the contemporary world.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199392083.2025.76-82.