A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ARTISTIC REPRESENTATION OF FEMALE AGENCY IN THE NOVELS OF MAGGIE O’FARRELL

Abstract

This article provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the novels ’Hamnet’ (2020) and ’The Marriage Portrait’ (2022) by the Anglo-Irish writer Maggie O’Farrell. It is argued that these works constitute a coherent artistic project of feminist historical revision that transcends the genre of biofiction. The study substantiates the applicability of Linda Hutcheon’s concept of historiographic metafiction, which allows the novels to be examined not only as reconstructions of female lives but also as a critique of the patriarchal mechanisms of historiography. The aim of the research is to identify the recurring themes and shared narrative strategies the author employs to deconstruct patriarchal concepts and assert female agency. The methodological framework combines feminist criticism with historical-literary and comparative analysis. The analysis focuses on key narrative and stylistic techniques that affirm the value of female experience. Specifically, it examines the strategy of decentering the male figure (William Shakespeare) and the use of corporeality in the female protagonists' perception of the world to validate alternative, non-patriarchal forms of knowledge. Based on a detailed comparison of the characters of Agnes Hathaway and Lucrezia de’ Medici, the study identifies and characterizes universal patterns of patriarchal control (objectification, violence, the reduction of women to a function) and forms of female resistance (connection with nature, bodily agency, intuitive knowledge, creativity). Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the novels’ endings as crucial elements of the feminist project. The evolution of the author’s strategies is traced: from the transformation of trauma into art and healing through the reinterpretation of the canon in ’Hamnet’ to the radical rewriting of a woman’s tragic historical destiny in ’The Marriage Portrait’.