From Regency Morality to Tropical Tragedy: A Decolonial and Gender-Based Comparative Analysis of Emma Woodhouse and Emma in the Works of José María Vargas Vila

Abstract

This article develops a decolonial and gender-based comparative analysis of female subjectivity through the figures of Emma Woodhouse in Emma and Emma in the works of José María Vargas Vila. Moving beyond superficial nominal coincidence, the study proposes the shared name “Emma” as a symbolic and discursive entry point to examine how two distinct literary traditions construct divergent models of femininity within unequal historical and epistemological frameworks. The research adopts a qualitative interpretative approach grounded in critical hermeneutics and symbolic interactionism, complemented by a decolonial theoretical framework drawing on the works of Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo, and Catherine Walsh, alongside gender theory perspectives. Analytical categories include the configuration of female subjectivity, representations of love, social regulation, and the tension between agency and determinism. Findings reveal that Emma Woodhouse embodies a disciplined and socially regulated subjectivity embedded within the bourgeois order of Regency England, while Vargas Vila’s Emma represents a fragile and tragic subject shaped by emotional excess, moral instability, and the contradictions of a postcolonial Latin American context. The study contributes to comparative literary studies by advancing a decolonial methodology that enables dialogue between canonical European texts and marginalized Latin American narratives, challenging hegemonic frameworks in the construction of gendered subjectivities.