GENDER IDENTITY IN THE NOVELS OF MARIO VARGAS LLOSA: A QUEER THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Sexual discourse is a significant feature that highlights the distinctive identity of Latin American literature on the global literary map. Using a primary research approach that combines queer theory with historical-cultural analysis and discourse criticism, this article explores the issue of gender identity in the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa. The study reveals that his novels portray characters with fragmented identities, exhibiting numerous manifestations of non-normative sexualities, and living in constant tension between social expectations and individual desires. Through such portrayals, Llosa challenges, redefines, and blurs the boundaries of traditional norms regarding gender, sexuality, and identity, emphasizing their non-conformity, diversity, and fluidity. Furthermore, by underscoring how gender identity is shaped by power relations and cultural systems, Llosa’s fiction also serves as a critique of the dominant structures that impose fixed gender and sexual norms in Peruvian society. His work not only resists these hegemonic discourses but also opens a narrative space for marginalized identities to be represented and renegotiated within literature.