Metafiction in the Feminine Novel: Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

Abstract

The present research work is based on the study of two novels, Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell and Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The purpose of this study is to analyse the discourse used by the two writers, a discourse which has a twofold aspect, it is feminine and feminist. Then we shed light on the status of the heroines in the feminine metafiction. The ultimate objective is to highlight the struggle of the two novelists against the British society which ignored all feminine production of that time.