Feminismo en prosa de Lucía Etxebarria

Abstract

This thesis is mainly concerned with feminism in the prose of one of Spain’s most versatile writers, Lucía Etxebarria. She tries to solve the problem of finding female identity through her literary works. The author not only creates traditional female models, but also forms symbolic and alternative characters of Spanish women and new female identities that do not conform to the norms of patriarchy. At the same time, social background is an important component of her literary works. This work is conducted from the perspective of feminist methodology, using gender analysis, more specifically, feminism in contemporary narrative, as a conceptual philosophical framework, and offers a new vision for Lucía Etxebarria’s feminism. With these premises, we have developed our research from a general to a concrete approach. The first chapter is the introduction to the socio-literary background. It describes how Lucía Etxebarria is situated in that historical period, with special attention to the narratives of women in Spain at that time. The second and third chapters mainly focus on two main themes: the motherdaughter relationship and the female body, cornerstone of Lucía Etxebarria’s feminist writing, considering their connection with the social and historical conditions of Spanish women. This study examines her three novels to show how the historical and sociocultural characteristics of Spain have produced different representations of the mother-daughter bond and different attitudes towards the female body. The analysis of these two themes of the three selected works attempts to show that the author wants to break the structure that leads to gender inequality and patriarchal ideology in order to create a new kind of literature based on a feminine discourse that foregrounds women as narrative subjects. She uses her writings to create a space where we can receive her feminist thoughts and learn about the problems of women in the era she mentions by reflecting on the content of her works. Through the analysis of the two main themes, this work has achieved the goal of interpreting feminism in Lucía Etxebarria’s prose and also shaped her treatment of gender ideology. In this study, we have shown how Lucía Etxebarria embodies her feminist values in all aspects through her works and how her feminism defends women’s universal rights such as freedom, individuality and independence. In her narratives, it is clear that she calls for a more inclusive and humane way of life for women, as we wanted to show in this research.