The formation of female identity in contemporary Spanish detective novel

This study aims to analyze the formation of woman's identity in detective novels written by women writers since Franco's death in the light of feminist literary criticism. The selected novels belong to three different women writers who are thought to reflect the period of change of Spanish woman after Franco's death. The analysis focuses on the private eye Bárbara Arenas in Lourdes Ortiz's Picadura Mortal (1979), the police inspector Petra Delicado in Alicia Giménez Bartlett's Petra Delicado series (1996-2009), and the police inspector Amaia Salazar in Dolores Redondo's Baztán trilogy (2013-2014). The objective of this study is to find out to what extent the change of Spanish woman after feminism is reflected in the selected novels; to inquire into the question of whether the sexist structure of the detective novel genre which emerged and developed with a misogynist structure could be deconstructed by the female detective identities created by these women writers, and the question of whether women writers have common characteristics and form a different literary tradition from that of male writers. As a result, it is revealed that Bárbara Arenas reflects the Spanish woman of the 1980s, Petra Delicado the Spanish woman of the 1990s and the 2000s, and Amaia Salazar the Spanish woman of the present. It is concluded that the constructed female detective identities are shaped in parallel to the changing perception of woman in the society. It is understood that gender identities are not innate but are constructed with repetitive acts over time, hence they are fluid and changeable. It is concluded that the ongoing sexist structure of the detectitive novel is questioned and deconstructed through these novels which focus on issues that concern women such as physical and psychological violence, gender discrimination, rape, and child abuse in the patriarchal society. It is seen that women writers are on the way to creating a new literary tradition that is different from male writers with the subject matters they put at the center of their narratives and with their use of common literary devices such as parody, irony, castrating bitch stereotype, or matrophobia. Keywords: Feminist Literary Criticism, Women Writers, Female Detective, Detective Novel, Spanish Literature, Matrophobia, Castrating Bitch