Gender, Sexuality, and Female Intimacy in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September

Jukić, Nadja (author), Krevel, Mojca (mentor), Šporčič, Anamarija (comentor)

This thesis explores the connections between sex, gender, sexuality, and relationships between women in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September. It examines how femininity, female sexuality, and intimacy between women have been presented in theoretical, historical, and literary discourses, particularly before and during the 1920s, when Woolf’s and Bowen’s novels were published. The thesis argues that the interconnectedness between these phenomena is the main reason why lesbian desire in these novels has so often been rejected or overlooked, as feminine women are not presumed to find each other attractive or act on that attraction. Female intimacy, a newly established literary trope which takes into account the socio-historical circumstances related to lesbian experience and sexuality in the 1920s, is used to uncover and analyze desire between women in the two primary novels, as well as Bowen’s The Hotel and Patricia Highsmith’s Carol.

• Language: English
• Keywords: gender, sexuality, lesbian literature, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, To the Lighthouse, The Last September
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2022
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-136949
• COBISS.SI-ID: 109254403
• Publication date in RUL: 26.05.2022

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Spol, seksualnost in intimnost med ženskami v romanih K svetilniku Virginie Woolf in The Last September Elizabeth Bowen

Abstract

Magistrska naloga raziskuje povezave med družbenim in biološkim spolom, seksualnostjo in razmerji med ženskami v romanih K Svetilniku Virginie Woolf in The Last September Elizabeth Bowen. Preučuje, kako so femininost, ženska seksualnost in intimnost med ženskami (bile) predstavljene v različnih teoretičnih, zgodovinskih in literarnih diskurzih, predvsem pred in med obdobjem 1920-ih, ko sta bila objavljena romana K Svetilniku in The Last September. Teza naloge je, da je ravno medsebojna povezava med zgoraj omenjenimi pojavi tista, zaradi katere so bili lezbični elementi v teh romanih pogosto zavrnjeni ali spregledani, saj se feminine ženske med seboj naj ne bi privlačile oziroma ni pričakovano, da bi glede te privlačnosti karkoli storile. Intimnost med ženskami, na novo oblikovan trop, ki upošteva sociološke in zgodovinske okoliščine povezane z lezbičnimi izkušnjami in seksualnostjo v 1920-ih, je uporabljen za odkrivanje in analiziranje privlačnosti med ženskami v primarnih romanih, omenjenih zgoraj, pa tudi v romanih The Hotel Elizabeth Bowen in Carol Patricie Highsmith.

• Keywords: spol, seksualnost, lezbična literatura, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, To the Lighthouse, The Last September