Fractured Mirrors: Identity, Authority, and the Subversive Gaze in Contemporary Fiction

Abstract

For centuries, the novel has functioned as a cultural mirror, reflecting societal norms back to its readership. Yet, who holds the mirror, and whose face is it trained upon? The politics of representation in modern literature concerns itself precisely with this question of power. It is not merely about seeing characters from marginalized groups, but about who is doing the seeing, the telling, and the judging. In the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st, a seismic shift occurred.