Orlando

Author's name: Virginia Woolf Publisher: Al-Ain for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2021 Literary classification: Novel Brief about the book: A novel that tells the story of Orlando, in its two images: the man and the woman or others of the selves, in the shadow of her lack of feeling of belonging to the cultural society, or society in its broad sense, which defines its essence, and the nature of art and poetry. The margin that makes her present a fierce, sarcastic critique, closer to satire, of the symbols of English culture, whether previous or contemporary. For this margin, we should not only stop at Orlando's nationality identity, for in doing so, we forget the games of time and technology, and the genre of the novel: which does not distinguish by purity of type, just as Orlando does not possess that trait either, but also borrows from the biography in its margins and index; which confused booksellers at the time of its release, as they were not entirely sure of the genre of the book, and it is also difficult for the reader to be completely certain of Orlando's genre essence. This is understandable for an author who knows that technique is nothing but vision. And vision is exactly what concerns us from our stance before the margin, for the intellectual who takes a marginal stance and does not feel familiarity with the text, is, in Edward Said’s view, like someone living in exile. Exile generates characteristics, such as: not accepting something, so the intellectual sees what is around him from a perspective beyond what is in front of him and behind him, as he possesses a dual perspective. Through this, we can understand how Orlando viewed the world: in the two images she was in. And this perspective makes one realize that everything is in a state of constant becoming; these facts are not divine, but social facts, shaped by humans. In light of that, we can understand the fierce critique of the structure of society across three eras.