The aim of this paper is to look into how Woolf represents the dilemma of "stepdaughters of England" in The Years (1937) which has been regarded as minor in the discussion of national identity in Woolf's works. In Three Guineas (1938), Woolf's stepdaughters are defined as outsiders of male-dominated English society who keep their distance from the British Empire and thus are key figures in imagining and creating a new world based on cosmopolitanism. At the same time, Woolf exposes the stepdaughters' strong desire for England and English culture that is deeply ingrained in their bodies. In The Years, which was originally conceived as one essay-novel with Three Guineas, Woolf expresses not only the stepdaughters' ideal position as outsiders of England but also their real wish to dominate England in which she has been marginalized. As Garrity points out, Woolf does it through her representation of female body. Eleanor's body is filled with new power during an air raid when she imagines a new world free from war. Her expanding body positively represents the stepdaughters' position as the site in constructing the new world beyond national, racial, and sexual borders. On the other hand, Eleanor's cousin Kitty's body shrinks and even seems to disappear when she tries to accomplish her hidden desire to monopolize not only the land of her husband but also the land of England itself. The text of The Years seems to be divided against itself between the strong and opposed desires of the stepdaughters. In The Years Woolf not only expresses her hope for the possibility of stepdaughters but also betrays their real wish to become the son of England instead of being stepdaughters.

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