Biography, Modernism, Magical Realism
We may have stretched the truth a bit about this being a biography, but it calls itself one, so we feel justified in labeling it that way. Just think of it as an unconventional biography. As far as the magical realism goes, there are definitely some pretty unbelievable events that transpire in the novel: characters that live for centuries, magical sex changes, finger tingling, inexplicable weeklong sleeps…
Last but not least, Orlando is squarely in the modernist camp for its desire to de-stabilize fixed truths and "normal" plot structures. Modernists attempt to show the pure subjectivity of human beings, which is clearly what Woolf was aiming at with Orlando’s character