Sexual and Gender Identity in Postmodern Rewriting: from Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf to The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Abstract

This study analyses Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours as a rewriting of Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, in relation to a direction found in the literary studies of today, i.e. lesbian and gay criticism, and the theory of rewriting as the literary expression of an ideology that blasts all forms of power imposed by canons. The identity theme of Michael Cunningham’s rewriting is seen as a permanent negotiation between gender and sex, as Cunningham’s novel investigates not only the sources of the sexual options – homosexuality / heterosexuality / autoeroticism – and the issue of affective fulfilment in this existential formula, but also the determination of gender roles in three societal structures existing in different moments in time.

Keywords

• rewriting
• lesbian and gay criticism
• identity
• sex
• gender