Sapphism and Gender in Virginia Woolf and Radclyffe Hall

• Thesis title in Czech: Sapfismus a gender u Virginie Woolfové a Radclyffe Hallové
• Thesis title in English: Sapphism and Gender in Virginia Woolf and Radclyffe Hall
• Key words: Sapfismus|Woolf|Hall|Radclyffe|Orlando|Paní Dallowayová|Studna samoty|lesbický román
• English key words: Sapphism|Woolf|Hall|Radclyffe|Orlando|Mrs Dalloway|The Well of Loneliness|lesbian novel
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2015/2016
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 06.06.2016
• Date of assignment: 08.06.2016
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 09.06.2016
• Date and time of defence: 11.09.2017 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 12.08.2017
• Date of proceeded defence: 11.09.2017
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.

Guidelines

For my BA thesis, I would like to observe and compare the way the way in which lesbian elements are introduced and how gender is constructed in Radclyffe Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness and various works of Virginia Woolf (not only her novels, but also her essays, such as A Room of One’s Own).
For example, Radclyffe Hall retains a construction of gender that presents lesbian relationships as existing only between “masculine” (Stephen, Jamie) and “feminine” (Mary, Barbara) women. On the other hand, Woolf presents gender as a dynamic spectrum on which the traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics are intertwined. This position of hers is explicitly stated in A Room of One’s Own, but also appears implicitly in the novel Orlando (which was written for her then-lover, Vita Sackville West).
Overall, while Hall’s approach to presenting lesbian relationships is direct and doesn’t shy away from anything besides sex, Woolf presents them perhaps as more indirect and implicit, more open to interpretation. This is not necessarily the result of the form in which they write, since Woolf’s form is, naturally, more open, while Hall’s is more traditional and allows for the skipping of important details and developments.
In relation to this, it would perhaps be relevant to include certain biographical details, specifically those concerning Hall’s and Woolf’s relationships with other women, as well as the publication history of some of their novels. For example, the fact that The Well of Loneliness was initially banned as “obscene” in Britain and that both Woolf and Sackville-West made an appearance at the trial is relevant in establishing some idea of lesbian underground writing before the Second World War.
I would like to analyse gender and sexuality using primarily some of the newer approaches of gender studies, feminist critique and queer theory. As such, I will work from the assumption that both gender and sexuality are constructed both biologically pre-destined (i.e. not a choice), fluid and affected by social context. To this end, I will work primarily with Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performance and various lesbian histories and studies by others, attempting to distance myself as far as possible from heteronormative (Freud etc.) and TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist, e.g. Germaine Greer) literature. This sort of literature may be used, however, to provide historical context for how society has traditionally seen sexuality and gender. My primary focus will be on how sexuality and gender is constructed outwardly, rather than inwardly, and how those involved are affected by their socio-political environment.
Contemporary lesbian and gender-focused literature may be used to give context and provide contrast.

References

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge, 2011.
De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Trans. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. New York: Vintage, 2011.
Faderman, Lilian. Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. London: Penguin, 1996.
Hall, Radclyffe. The Well of Loneliness. London: Penguin, 2015.
Lee, Hermione. Virgnia Woolf. London: Vintage, 1997.
Souhami, Diana. The Trials of Radclyffe Hall. London: Quercus, 2012
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Oxford: OUP, 2014.
Woolf, Virginia. Selected Diaries. London: Vintage, 2008.
Woolf, Virginia. Selected Letters. London: Vintage, 2008.
Woolf, Virgnia. A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas. Oxford: OUP, 2015.