“If I Saw You Would You Kiss Me?”: Sapphism and the Subversiveness of Virginia Woolf'sOrlando

Abstract

Woolf calledOrlandoa “joke,” an “escapade,” and critics have taken her at her word. Although an enormous amount has been written about Woolf, the novel that celebrates her love for Vita Sackville-West tends to be ignored, dismissed as an anomaly, or explained as something other than what it is. But the things we joke about are often the things we care about too much to risk seriousness. The bold and dazzling achievement of Woolf's “joke” only becomes clear whenOrlandois set in the context of the love that inspired it and seen against the social, historical, and literary background in which it was conceived.

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