Re-Orient-ation: Gender Transformation within Oriental Contexts
Demet Karabulut Dede, Haliç University; Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of English
Wed, 4/3 · 4:30 pm—6:00 pm · 111 East Pyne
Department of English
Virginia Woolf’s seminal work Orlando commands a prominent place within the scholarly discourse on her oeuvre, prompting extensive inquiries into the rationale behind the chosen milieu for Orlando’s sexual metamorphosis. Frequently, scholars draw parallels between the protagonist Orlando and figures such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, renowned for her travels to Constantinople from 1716 to 1718, as well as Vita Sackville-West, who also lived in Constantinople between 1913-1914. This presentation proposes to undertake a comparative reading of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and Vita Sackville-West’s Challenge, elucidating the theme of gender transformation and the metaphorical ‘unveiling’ as it unfolds within the context of the Orient.
