This thesis explores the phenomena and the manifestation of heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality in the novel Orlando and short story “Slater’s Pins Have No Points”, written by the English writer Virginia Woolf. Woolf is known today as one of the most proactive lesbian-feminist authors, but this was not always the case. The reader reception keeps changing based on contemporary societal norms, which dictate a different reading of stories. Here we are faced with many questions about the ways of narration that Woolf used in order to avoid getting her works censored, how she masked homoeroticism, why she accepted heteronormativity by staying married to a man. To what degree are the works autobiographical, what is she trying to say by doing so, and who this type of reading is meant for. We explore this through the main characters of the works – Orlando and Fanny – who reach a spiritual awakening through the course of their stories. Orlando then is contemplating and exploring his gender, and Fanny questions her sexuality and the expectations that come with it.
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