IDENTITY, SUBVERSION AND AGENCY: A FEMINIST STUDY OF THE SPANISH DAUGHTER BY LORENA HUGHES

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the construction, transformation, and subversion of female identity in The Spanish Daughter by Lorena Hughes through the lens of feminist literary criticism. While feminist scholarship has extensively addressed women’s oppression within patriarchal systems, limited attention has been given to how identity itself functions as a site of resistance and negotiation within literary texts. Addressing this gap, the study explores how female identity is constructed, challenged, and redefined in relation to patriarchal constraints, and how agency emerges through these transformations. Drawing upon Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the study conceptualizes gender not as a fixed or inherent identity but as a socially constructed and repeatedly performed phenomenon shaped by cultural norms and power structures. Through qualitative textual analysis, the study focuses on the protagonist’s adoption of a male identity as a survival strategy within a male-dominated society, examining how this transformation exposes the instability of traditional gender roles. The findings suggest that gender identity in the novel is fluid and performative, and that the protagonist’s shifting identity challenges rigid binaries by demonstrating how gender can be enacted, negotiated, and reinterpreted. Furthermore, the study reveals that agency operates within, rather than outside, systems of power, as the protagonist navigates and subtly resists the limitations imposed upon her. By linking identity transformation with subversion and agency, this study contributes to feminist literary criticism by demonstrating how literary narratives can question dominant gender ideologies and offer alternative possibilities for understanding identity within patriarchal contexts.