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Definition of Parody
A parody is a work that mimics the style of another work, artist, or genre in an exaggerated way, usually for comic effect. Parodies can take many forms, including fiction... read full definition
A parody is a work that mimics the style of another work, artist, or genre in an exaggerated way, usually for comic effect. Parodies can... read full definition
A parody is a work that mimics the style of another work, artist, or genre in an exaggerated way, usually... read full definition
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—The Biographical Genre:
Throughout Orlando, Woolf uses satire and parody to critique the traditional literary genre of biography, namely the assumption that any biographer could be truly objective when telling the story of another. Early in the novel, Woolf's narrator states: "Our simple duty is to state the facts as far as they are known, and so let the reader make of them what he may." However, later they admit that "often it has been necessary to speculate, to surmise, and even to make use of the imagination" when crafting Orlando's story.
Woolf's narrator regularly comments upon alleged weaknesses of the genre, but they also adhere heavily to certain expectations of biographical work. Thus, not only is Orlando satirical in its approach to constructing a biography (albeit a fictional one), but it is also parodic, mimicking certain literary conventions to poke fun of them. For example, when Orlando arrives at Kent Road in Chapter 6, she grapples with the idea of having multiple selves:
For she had a great variety of selves to call upon, far more than we have been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well have as many thousand.
Here, Woolf uses both satire and parody to make a humorous comment towards expectations of the biographical genre. Woolf's narrator critiques biographies for being "complete" if they show only a fraction of a person’s “selves”—for Woolf's narrator is aware that a person, such as Orlando, could have a thousand. However, not wanting to stray too far from the genre itself, Woolf's narrator commits the very "sin" they described and chronicles Orlando during "six or seven" phases of her life throughout the novel. Is Woolf's biography thus considered "complete" according to these illogical standards? Or is it merely a parody of biographies themselves, which may never be complete because, as Woolf argues, they "merely account for six or seven selves"? Orlando does not provide direct answers to these questions, but Woolf encourages readers to question their assumptions about the biographical genre throughout the novel.
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