Abstract:
This article focuses on the short story “Desiderata” found in Lucía Etxebarria's 1999 work Nosotras que no somos como las demás. The article analyzes Etxebarria's use of the quest-romance in “Desiderata” and concludes that the quest fails. I explain the concept of the original quest-romance and its feminized version and then relate those concepts to “Desiderata” through a textual analysis of the story. I suggest that Etxebarria writes a failed quest-romance story to illustrate the limits of the quest as a feminist tool of self-discovery. Whereas the experiences of the quest suggest change and freedom, a closer reading shows how the narrative structure reinforces confinements that women face by consistently allowing the female protagonist a taste of change and then using the mirror as a tool to undermine her experiences.
Description:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in [Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures] on [Summer 2016], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00397709.2016.1172000
