Abstract This paper examines how, in general, pedagogy and androgyny are both forms of learning and education and how, based on the origin of the two terms, they differ in the field of study that each covers. It looks at how, as defined and considered by some philosophers, pedagogy and androgyny differ in terms of the age of the learners and in terms of the methods of learning and teaching required.
From the Paper "The definitions of pedagogy and andragogy, however, presented issues to other critics and philosophers. Among those who contradict Knowles's concept of pedagogy and andragogy are Houle, London, and Elias (Holmes & Abington-Cooper). According to Houle (Holmes & Abington-Cooper), learning and education should be viewed as a single process in both children and adults. Others on the other hand suggest that pedagogy and andragogy are terms that have confused the process of learning, in which pedagogy should simply mean as a teacher-directed-learning while andragogy is a self-directed learning. Rachel (Holmes & Abington-Cooper) suggests that these simple definitions of pedagogy and andragogy can actually complement each other and must not be set exclusive to children's learning or adult's learning."
Abstract This paper contains multiple examples of how such characters as Peter Walsh and Septimus Smith have been stripped of all manhood by Woolf's belief in androgyny, or the unsexing of the two sexes. It explains how, by removing all the masculine traits of her male characters, these men become unrealistic to a modern, heterosexual, male reader.
From the Paper "For years the works of Virginia Woolf have inspired and motivated her readers. Many women, especially writers, find a strong voice in that of Woolf as they find themselves truly connecting with her characters. By getting inside the female mind Woolf is able to extract internal monologues that women can identify with and feel compassion for, making them seem very real and believable. But the same cannot be said, however, about Woolf's male characters. Though Woolf may accurately and effectively be able to get inside the minds of a woman and inspire women readers, she seems unable to create such accurate and believable male characters in her novel Mrs. Dalloway; specifically the characters of Peter Walsh and Septimus Smith. These male characters are two very crucial pieces of the novel, but on the page they do not seem to a modern, heterosexual, male reader, to be men at all. Instead, Woolf's belief in androgyny, or unsexing of gender, leads her to create men who have overly feminine characteristics, while some of her female characters, such as Sally Seton, become more masculine than their male counterparts."
Abstract This paper discusses how Hemingway can be considered a "man's writer who writes for men in an attempt to define men- real men, ideal men and manly men. It attempts to define Hemingway's man through an examination of some of his characters: Jake Barnes in "The Sun Also Rises Francis Macomber", Wilson in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and finally Robert Jordan in "For Whom the Bell Tolls". It concludes that by considering these characters, Hemingway's perception of gender seems to be strictly binary.
From the Paper "Perhaps Hemingway sets out not to establish a code for that which he considers manly, but rather identify what society has already designated as manly. Subsequently, perhaps Hemingway has a certain amount of empathy for those of his protagonists who are ultimately foiled by these impossible standards. So what is a man supposed to be? Michael Leland describes "the story [as] familiar by now: the Hemingway hero loses some version of his maleness to the first World War, and he replaces it with a tool -- in Upper Michigan, a fishing rod or pocketknife; in Africa, a hunting rifle" - which is of course, a gross oversimplification but nevertheless a humorous take on what characteristics shape his protagonists. "
Abstract Through a reading of Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" and Jeanette Winterson's "Written on the Body", this paper examines androgyny as a gender position. It looks at how both authors transcend the concepts of gender as opposites of the spectrum and how they bend gender or, 'ungender' gender, with their works.
From the Paper "In Orlando Virginia Woolf transcends the concept of gender as opposites of the spectrum. Published in 1928, the same year as The Well of Loneliness, when homosexuality was still taboo and the word androgyny did not yet exist (and an androgynous person was called a hermaphrodite who is a person with both female and male genitalia). the novel was dedicated to Woolf's lover Vita Sackville-West. The novel is the biography of an English aristocratic poet in the 16th century, who becomes the favourite of Elizabeth I. Orlando miraculously changes into a woman and Lady Orlando continues down the centuries in her stately home in Kent. It centres around Orlando's search for her/his (sexual?) identity and fulfillment and it is an escape from fixed gender identity. "
Abstract This paper introduces, discusses, and analyzes the book, "The Traveler", written by Antal Szerb and edited by Peter Hargitai. Specifically, the paper discusses the novel's androgyny, "death eroticism," and how the novel is a rite of passage.
From the Paper "From the beginning of this novel, it is clear the main character, Mihaly, is not your typical bridegroom. First, he is thirty-six, a bit old for a groom, and second, he leaves his new wife to wander the alleys of Venice alone early in the story, hardly the thing an ardent bridegroom would do on his honeymoon. There is more to Mihaly than meets the eye, and even his wife recognizes this early on, when she muses, "? and, for that matter, how little women really interested him" (Szerb 7), and he has "secrets which he did not confess even to himself" (Szerb 8). Their relationship is odd from the beginning, and it is clear Mihaly is an androgynous man who does not understand himself, or the people around him. As he recounts his story, it is clear that he has no hint of his own sexuality, and so, he surrounds himself with androgynous people who complement his own lack of sensuality and sexual feeling. He seems to blame much of this on his childhood and adolescence, but it is clear throughout the book that Mihaly is simply a bland personality, who ultimately has no thoughts or deep feelings for anyone but himself and the dead Tamas."
Abstract The paper discusses the book "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. The writer analyzes the character of Scarlett O Hara, comparing Scarlett's character with a modern-day social climber. The writer further explains how Margaret Mitchell's experiences in Post-World War I America shaped her perceptions of the role of women in society, and shows how this impacted on the characters she wrote about in the book.
From the Paper "During the war, traits that Scarlett had been told to repress becomes her salvation, as her masculine qualities emerge. Early in the novel, she had said that she wished she was a man, and by the war's end, "her reactions were all masculine" (Mitchell pp). Faust notes that Mitchell "chooses to make the gradual emergence of her stereotypically masculine traits a significant aspect of Scarlett's growth and maturation" (Faust pp)"
Abstract This paper reviews 'A Room of One's Own' by Virginia Woolf. The paper argues that Virginia Woolf privileges men and masculinity over women and femininity in her essay. The paper draws examples from the essay to support the argument.
From the Paper "Why was there no woman with Shakespeare's brilliance? She agrees with the biased views of various professors that "it would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare" (46). Woolf explains that even if a woman had possessed the creative gifts of Shakespeare, the world would never have known it. She suggests that perhaps Shakespeare had a "wonderfully gifted sister," but she did not have the opportunities he had. Shakespeare's sister "remained at home. She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school" (47). Woolf even imagines Shakespeare's sister being forced into marriage, coerced by her parents, running away, and eventually killing herself because of her frustrated genius. Woolf adamantly insists that "it is unthinkable that any woman in Shakespeare's day should have had Shakespeare's genius," but her reason is not that women are inferior. Instead, they were poor, uneducated, and enslaved by domestic duty. Since "genius like Shakespeare's is not born among labouring, uneducated, servile people,"(48) no woman had a chance to develop and express her "incandescence" like Shakespeare did. Instead, she "would certainly have gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at. For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty" (49). "
Abstract The paper explores Shakespeare's gender disguise that distorted female identity and investigates early modern constructions of gender as distinct from sexual difference. The paper examines the play "Twelfth Night" in order to show how it was Shakespeare's intention to challenge gender taboos of the Elizabethan age.
From the Paper "Considered by critics as Shakespeare's best achievement in the comic genre, the play Twelfth Night or, What You Will affords an elaborate exploration of love and power relationships, gender roles and taboos. Identity poses highly confounding problems, as there are numerous layers to the characters' gender roles and their maze-like relationships and (homo) erotic affinities. Through a range of female characters and the implications of (wo)man disguises, Shakespeare exposes gender issues. Several heroines of the comedies appear in disguise on the Renaissance stage, which represents the cultural context of the play."
