Of Rainbow and Granite: Androgynous Narrative in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Ali Smith’s How to Be Both

Abstract

L’articolo si propone di delineare un’analisi comparativa tra Orlando (1928) di Virginia Woolf e How to Be Both (2014) di Ali Smith. In particolare, si intende dimostrare come l’opera di Smith rielabori in modo creativo il romanzo di Woolf, andando così ad incarnare e ad esprimere con vividezza il concetto di ‘mente androgina’ teorizzato dalla stessa autrice. Ciò avviene attraverso la rimozione dei confini temporali tra passato e presente, l’ambiguità sessuale delle protagoniste e, soprattutto, attraverso un paradigma letterario capace di indagare la necessità di un’interazione reciproca tra autrici e lettori, e di un più ampio dialogo tra il testo letterario e le altre influenze artistiche e culturali con le quali instaura un imprescindibile rapporto dialettico.

DOI: 10.17456/SIMPLE-214

Parole chiave: androgyny, duplicity, mutual participation, reader’s engagement, reciprocity, sexual identity, visuality.

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