Orlando

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

DEBATE: “Is Orlando the First Trans Novel?”

In this activity, students will argue for or against the assertion that Orlando is the first trans novel written in the English language.

In this article from The Guardian, Jeannette Winterson dubs Orlando “the first English language trans novel.” Using the text as well as your own research, you will argue either for or against the following assertion: Winterson’s argument is correct and Orlando is the “the first English language trans novel.” Working with your classmates, you will develop an argument—including opening and closing statements as well as rebuttals—that supports your point of view. Be sure to rehearse your argument with your group prior to the in-class debate.

Finally, participate in a post-debate class discussion in which you analyze and reflect on each team’s argumentative approaches. What persuasive techniques did you find most effective in the opposing team’s argument, and why?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity invites students to apply their analytical and debate skills to the text’s themes of The Construction and Performance of Gender, The Nonlinear Passage of Time, and The Connection Between Subjectivity and Truth. It may be helpful to ask students to reflect on these themes during the post-debate class discussion. This teacher-facing resource from Harvard University provides guidance on facilitating in-class debates.

Paired Text Extension:

Jeffrey Eugenides’s 2002 novel Middlesex explores the transformation of an intersex individual in the 20th century. Compare and contrast Woolf’s Orlando with Eugenides’s novel. How do both novels approach the concept of a “trans” identity? Does the material in each novel reflect the contexts surrounding their different publication dates? If so, how? Finally, how is Orlando’s themes of The Construction and Performance of Gender and The Connection Between Subjectivity and Truth reflected in Eugenides’s novel?

Teaching Suggestion: This Paired Text Extension invites students to link the debate above to Eugenides’s novel. Students may complete this Extension as either a take-home written assignment or an in-class discussion. Since adding another novel to the reading list could be time consuming for classes with tight schedules and limited resources, it may be helpful to use an excerpt from each novel for comparison, rather than comparing the two texts as a whole.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The biographer notes that “there is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them.” (Chapter 4)

• How do clothes reflect gender and identity in the text? How do they reflect gender and class? (topic sentence)
• Find 2-3 examples to substantiate your answer regarding the link among gender, identity, class, and clothing.
• In your concluding sentences, consider what might Woolf be saying about conformity in relation to The Construction and Performance of Gender.

2. Orlando’s ability to stay young allows for meetings of famous poets throughout time.

• Which eras does the biographer focus on? How do these eras link with Orlando’s encounters of different poets and writers? (topic sentence)
• Select one of these eras and analyze the way in which time is linked with Orlando’s development as a writer.
• In your concluding sentences, discuss why Woolf employs The Nonlinear Passage of Time in the novel and the overall effect it has on Orlando’s ability as a poet.

3. Many of Woolf’s characters in Orlando have male and female physical characteristics, while identity and gender fluidity are inextricably linked throughout the novel.

• How does the gender fluidity of particular characters reflect Woolf’s argument about gender? (topic sentence)
• Select either Orlando, Harriet/Harry, or Shel and analyze the way in which the perception of their gender is linked to their identity.
• In your concluding sentences, explore how the relationship between gender and identity links to Woolf’s larger theme of The Connection Between Subjectivity and Truth.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. What is Woolf’s purpose in labeling Orlando a biography? What effect does this choice have? Consider why Woolf decided to fictionalize a biography rather than write a novel. What might Woolf be saying about the methods and tools of biographers, and how could this relate to the text’s theme of The Connection Between Subjectivity and Truth?

2. Orlando was published in 1928. While it is heavily based on Woolf’s friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West, it is also often considered a satirical history of English literature. What does Woolf’s novel say about English values during this time period? How does Woolf satirize elements of English identity? How might the post-WWI historical context inform her argument?

3. The protagonist Orlando spends much time writing and revising poetry in addition to other forms like prose and drama. In what ways does the novel serve as a commentary on poetry, literature, and writing? What is Woolf satirizing in the characters of Orlando and Nicholas Greene? How does Woolf’s stylistic shifts in each chapter support these claims?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Woolf opens her novel with the following statement: “He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters” (Chapter 1). Which of the following conclusions may be drawn from the above quote?

A) That Orlando passes as a woman despite being a man

B) That the narrator sees 16th century clothing as feminine

C) That Orlando openly tries to hide his male sex

D) That the narrator finds Orlando to be improper

2. Which of the following phrases best describes Orlando’s background?

A) Noble and wealthy

B) Austere and poor

C) Neglectful and unstable

D) Affluent and finicky

3. Which of the following locales is Orlando particularly fond of throughout the novel?

A) City boulevards

B) Natural landscapes

C) Royal palaces

D) Animal shelters

4. The biographer notes, “As for the girl, we know no more than Queen Elizabeth herself […] she may have been a court lady, or some serving maid. For Orlando’s taste was broad; he was no lover of garden flowers only; the wild and the weeds even had always a fascination for him” (Chapter 1). Which of the following phrases best summarize the above quote’s assertion?

A) That Orlando does not judge a girl’s background

B) That Orlando has a deep interest in gardening

C) That Orlando only dates women of his social milieu

D) That Orlando is not interested in the female sex

5. Which of the following pairs of events coincide in the novel?

A) The emissary role of Orlando in Constantinople and Queen Victoria’s reign

B) The Great Frost and Orlando’s relationship with Sasha

C) The redecoration of Orlando’s house and the Victorian Era

D) The industrialization of rural England and Orlando’s physical transformation

6. While walking through the family’s sepulcher in Chapter 2, Orlando finds a bone and muses, “Whose hand was it? […] The right or the left? The hand of man or woman, of age or youth? Had it urged the war horse, or plied the needle? Had it plucked the rose, or grasped cold steel?” Which of the following phrases best describes the purpose of this quote?

A) To question the scientific evidence surrounding the differences between gender and sex

B) To assert the importance of gender roles in the 16th-century Elizabethan Era

C) To emphasize the dichotomy of social expectations attached to gender, not sex

D) To imply the necessity of separating male and female tombs

7. The biographer notes, “Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither” (Chapter 2). Which of the following pairs of literary terms does the biographer use in this quote?

A) Allusion and metaphor

B) Metaphor and personification

C) Paradox and metaphor

D) Simile and personification

8. Which of the following sentences best summarizes Greene’s sentiments toward his fellow Elizabethan writers?

A) He is proud of their accomplishments.

B) He is skeptical of their talent.

C) He is ashamed of their poverty.

D) He is delighted with their wit.

9. Which of the following sets of words best describes Orlando’s time in Constantinople?

A) Ornate and chiding

B) Obstinate and deceptive

C) Lavish and transformative

D) Leisurely and artistic

10. Which of the following body parts of Orlando are frequently mentioned throughout the text?

A) His legs

B) His arms

C) His nose

D) His chin

11. Which of the following changes does the biographer make halfway through the novel?

A) Moves the setting for the fourth time

B) Adopts an extended metaphor for the rest of the text

C) Adds a permanent deuteragonist

D) Switches the protagonist’s pronouns

12. Upon seeing her homeland once again, Orlando muses, “To refuse and to yield […] how delightful; to pursue and conquer, how august; to perceive and to reason, how sublime” (Chapter 4). Which of the following literary terms does the author use in this quote?

A) Allegory

B) Alliteration

C) Allusion

D) Anaphora

13. Which of the following arguments does the biographer make in Chapter 4 concerning clothes?

A) They have no effect whatsoever on a person’s identity.

B) They contribute to the actions and beliefs of a person over time.

C) They are not related to one’s social class.

D) They are important only to one’s family.

14. Which of the following attributes does Orlando struggle with throughout the text?

A) Fear of heights

B) Absentmindedness

C) Love of laughter

D) Excessive crying

15. Which of the following phrases best describes how the biographer views society?

A) Important but overlooked

B) Greedy but gentle

C) Powerful but vapid

D) Docile but fervent

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What are the various settings and time periods in the fictionalized biography? How do they interact with Orlando’s transformation as a character?

2. What is the narration style of Orlando? Who is the narrator, and how does this connect to the genre of the story?