FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY AND THE CRISIS OF THE "MODERN SELF" IN ENGLISH PROSE: THE FRAGMENTATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 61 FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY AND THE CRISIS OF THE “MODERN SELF” IN ENGLISH PROSE: THE FRAGMENTATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY Musayeva S. PhD Student, Azerbaijan University (Baku, Azerbaijan) orcid.org/0009-0002-7630-1531 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17942558 Abstract This article examines how female subjectivity was formed in 20th–21st century English prose, against what aesthetic and philosophical processes it changed, and how it intersected with the crisis of the “modern self.” The study shows that the image of modern woman is presented not only as a product of social roles, but also as an act of self-understanding, confronting internal divisions, and rebuilding identity. Starting from the modernist period, stream of consciousness, fragmented time, and introspective narrative have become key artistic techniques in English prose to reveal the complex layers of female psychology. Writers such as Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield create conditions for the rewriting of subjectivity by bringing to the fore the deep psychological layers of the female self, while Doris Lessing and Angela Carter critique ideological, social, and mythical structures. In the postmodern era, authors such as Zadie Smith present identity as a multicultural, race-gender intersectional, and socially variable process. The article concludes by showing that the crisis of the “modern self” becomes a space of creative transformation for female subjectivity, rather than destructive; Female identity is characterized by continuous renewal and self-transcendence, rather than stability. Keywords: agency, gender, identity, modernism, subjectivity. Introduction: 20th–21st century English prose is a unique period in which female subjectivity has transcended the traditional boundaries of artistic thought and has become a central focus; where female identity is reunderstood not only as a social role, but also as a complex psychological, cultural, and philosophical construct. The literary texts that emerged during this period, especially modernist and postmodernist poetics, present women's individual experience not only as a reaction to patriarchal structures, but also as a mirror of the shattering struggle that a person leads with his or her own internal self-system. It is in this context that the concept of the "modern self" gains particular relevance: Kierkegaard's thoughts on the tension of existence, Freud's mechanisms of fragmentation of the unconscious, Foucault's theories on forms of power over the subject, and Butler's theories on the performative nature of gender form the intellectual map of this concept. Modern English prose, by translating this theoretical heritage into artistic practice, shows that female subjectivity is confronted with both internal psychological fragmentations and structures of socio-cultural oppression. The aim of the article is to open up and answer these cross-tensions: By what principles is female identity constructed in modern prose? What contradictions do patriarchal culture and modernity create in female subjectivity? And finally, through what literary techniques is the collapse, fragmentation and reconstruction of the “self” expressed? Exploring these questions allows us to understand the dynamic, changing and multilayered nature of female subjectivity, as well as to create conditions for a deeper appreciation of the aesthetic and philosophical orientations of modern English literature.  Theoretical framework of female subjectivity The emergence of female subjectivity as one of the main theoretical directions in modern literary criticism is primarily due to the radical innovations that feminist thought brought to cultural discourse since the late 19th century. Simone de Beauvoir's thesis “One is not born a woman, but rather one is made” gave a fundamental turn to the issue of subjectivity by declaring that female identity is not dependent on biology, but on socio-cultural processes; in her opinion, society constructs women within predetermined roles, and this structure shapes both a woman's self-awareness and her view of the world [1, p. 112]. This approach made it possible to understand female subjectivity not as an immutable category, but as a dynamic construction developed by historical-cultural codes, and laid the foundation for modern literature to explore the processes of dissolution and reconstruction of that construction at the artistic level. Judith Butler took this idea further by highlighting the performative nature of gender; in her view, gender is not a fixed entity, but a performative process created by behaviors, discourses, and social repetitions [4, p. 45]. This view provides an important clue to how female subjectivity is constructed in literature: if gender is constantly “re-enacted,” then the literary text becomes a site that reveals both the social constraints and the individual possibilities of these expressions. Butler’s concept of performativity thus shows that female identity is not bound to a single, unambiguous structure but to an open system of polyphony, and explains why images of women in modern English prose take such diverse, fragmented, and reconstructive forms. The third main line of feminist theoretical thought is formed by Hélène Cixous; her concept of écriture féminine — women's writing — claims that women's language carries a unique poetic energy. According to Cixous, patriarchal linguistic structures are not sufficient to express women's experience; women's writing arises outside of these structures and includes the rhythm of the body, the fluidity of emotion, the fragmentation of consciousness [6, p. 880]. This idea cre- 62 Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 ates an important theoretical framework for understanding the multiplicity of female subjectivity in English prose, the transformation of the text into both a strategy of self-expression and resistance. Thus, Beauvoir's social constructionist approach, Butler's performativity model, and Cixous's ideas about the poetic-ontological characteristics of women's writing become a single theoretical line that explains how female subjectivity is formed in modern English prose, what structures it dismantles, and what new forms of identity it creates. The concept of the “modern self” was formed in the intellectual thought of the 20th century at the intersection of philosophical and psychoanalytic paradigms that undermined traditional ideas about the inner integrity of man; this concept shows that the human self is no longer a stable, unchanging and continuous structure, but a dynamic process accompanied by constant fragmentation, reconstruction and internal tension. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, revealing the existence of deep mechanisms of repression, desire and fear under the layer of harmony visible on the surface of consciousness, presented the psychological integrity of man as an illusion, and also confirmed that the self is internally fragmented [9, p. 57]. Lacan, on the other hand, connecting this fragmentation with the structures of language, notes that the subject never fully acquires “himself”, but, on the contrary, constantly slides between the gaps of the symbolic system and experiences scattered forms of identity [14, p. 122]. Thus, the violation of psychological integrity becomes the main metaphor that constitutes the inner existence of modern man. The continuation of this psychological crisis on the social level is more clearly visible against the background of structural changes described by theorists of modernity such as Bauman and Giddens. Bauman’s model of “liquid modernity” shows that social systems are characterized by constant fluidity, instability and institutional weakening, which plunges the process of human self-realization into a state of profound uncertainty and directionlessness [2, p. 41]. Giddens explains modernity as the individual’s detachment from traditional social supports and emphasizes that the subject is forced to “reinvent” his or her life reflectively [10, p. 89]. Against the background of the collapse of social structure, the collapse of cultural constancies and the weakening of normative systems, the sense of self loses its center and is characterized by fragmentation and constant reconstruction. This situation leads to the emergence of concepts such as “self-fragmentation”, “alienation” and “identity crisis” as key terms describing the experience of modern man. Self-fragmentation — the falling of the self into a multi-part, heterogeneous state — is formed at the point where both psychological and social tensions converge; alienation — the alienation of a person from himself and the social world — is caused by the inability of the subject to restore his inner integrity; identity crisis arises due to the absence of stable models of identity against the background of constant change. All these processes bring special intensity to the depiction of female subjectivity in modern prose, because the collapse of patriarchal frameworks and the freedom and uncertainty created by modernity intertwine, creating paradoxical conditions for both the strengthening and fragmentation of female identity. Thus, the crisis of the “modern self” becomes not only a philosophical concept, but also a key mechanism explaining the transformational dynamics of subjectivity in the literary text; through this mechanism, English prose expresses on an aesthetic level the multilayered, unstable, and reconstructive nature of the female self.  The historical development of the image of women in English prose The evolution of the female image in English prose is a complex, multi-layered line from the classical tradition to the modernist turn, and along this line the artistic expression of female subjectivity acquires new shades from a social, psychological, and aesthetic point of view. Early forms of female agency are already clearly visible in Jane Austen's novels: although she places her heroines within the rigid norms of patriarchal society, she emphasizes their independence of thought, rational choices, and ability to direct social relations through subtle irony and psychological observation; these nuances create the first artistic models of female subjectivity, which are not yet fully revealed, but have high potential [20, p. 73]. The work of the Brontë sisters shifts this line in a more radical direction: in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, a woman's inner dignity, emotional will, and moral independence become an active position that challenges patriarchal boundaries, while in Emily Brontë, an unstable emotional space and instinctive power present female identity as a more complex, multilayered psychological construct [11, p. 101]. These works show that female subjectivity is not limited to social roles, but rather is built on elements such as self-depth, moral choice, and internal struggle. The Victorian era also tested all these artistic endeavors against the backdrop of strict socio-ideological frameworks. The social norms of the era sought to stabilize women within the family, morality, and conformist behavioral system; the obedience, emotional control, and public silence required of women severely limited their possibilities for subjectivity [13, p. 54]. However, it was against the backdrop of these limitations that women writers began to search for new forms of expression, turning the text into both a means of hidden resistance and psychological self-awareness. In Victorian prose, the inner world of female characters expands silently but intensely; subjectivity is not openly declared, but is depicted as a potential force that manifests itself in moments of emotional distress, internal tension, and conflict with society. Thus, the transition from the classical period to modernity reflects the transformation of the female image from passive representation to active spiritual and psychological subjectivity; this transformation acts as a preparatory stage for the future radical innovations of modernist prose and creates a major guiding line in the artistic development of female identity. Modernist literature has brought about a sharp aesthetic and philosophical shift in the depiction of female subjectivity; this shift has led to radical changes in the structure of language, the psychological depth of imagery, and notions of identity. Virginia Woolf’s work Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 63 is at the heart of this process: her idea of a “room of one’s own” suggests the need for a special space that allows women to be creative and think freely, and exposes the intellectual control mechanisms of patriarchal society [26, p. 17]. Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness technique directs the reader, rather than external events, to the fluid, diffuse, and multilayered rhythm of the psyche; identity is presented not as a fixed construct, but as a dynamic process in which different emotional and cognitive layers simultaneously collide and complement each other [26, p. 93]. The ruptures of inner speech, the diversified presentation of time, and the ladenness of space with psychological nuances allow Woolf to construct female subjectivity as both an attempt to break away from social pressures and a silent but powerful search for her inner self. In Katherine Mansfield's stories, the modernist turn is more subtle, but no less effective. In her texts, emotional fragmentation becomes the main way of expressing female experience: the heroes' immediate emotions, inner shocks, and intuitive reactions come to the fore rather than the external sequence of events [16, p. 58]. Mansfield is focused on revealing the most subtle psychological layers of human relationships, and this orientation enriches her female characters with moments of emotional intimacy, hidden dissatisfaction, and silent rebellion. Fragmented description, incomplete dialogues, and the unexpressed but strongly felt tension of inner feelings make Mansfield's female subjectivity unique, combining it with the aesthetic principles of modernism. Thus, the modernist turn in the work of Woolf and Mansfield forms new models of presenting female identity: one reveals the internal breadth and multiplicity of the subject on a philosophical-psychological scale, the other reveals the microstructure of feelings, the bare and unadorned texture of emotions. Together, these two lines create a turning point in the artistic development of female subjectivity in English prose and allow us to understand the sharp liberating impulse that modernism gave to female identity. Postmodern and contemporary English prose further expands the aesthetic possibilities opened up by modernism in the presentation of female subjectivity, creating a multilayered artistic space that systematically dismantles and reconstructs the boundaries of concepts of identity, gender, memory, and time. Jeanette Winterson's work is one of the most striking examples of this process; she makes identity the target of deconstruction, showing that gender is more of a cultural construct than a biological determination, and emphasizes that female subjectivity exists not as a fixed category, but as an act of constant transformation and selfcreation [23, p. 41]. For Winterson, the relationship between body and identity is not made of hard lines: in her texts, the boundaries of gender are blurred, and the source of love and desire acquires a polyphony that does not fit into normative structures; thus, female subjectivity is reinterpreted at the biological, social, and ontological levels. Zadie Smith’s prose takes this deconstructive line in a new direction—where female subjectivity is analyzed in a complex configuration of identity created by multiple intersecting factors such as race, class, and cultural affiliation. Smith’s characters are formed in the dynamic tension of a multicultural society; their identities are not stable, but rather a multiplicity that is constantly renewed and changing in spaces where different cultural codes collide [22, p. 74]. This hybridity, by expanding both the internal psychological experience and the sociocultural agency of the female image, shows that female subjectivity in contemporary prose is not formed from a single center; rather, it is created in a continuous process of negotiation between different affiliations. Ali Smith's work combines postmodern aesthetics with the deconstruction of time and memory mechanisms; she removes events from the rigid framework of chronological sequence and reconstructs the subject's experience of time through fragments, acts of remembrance, and unstable cognition [21, p. 52]. In her texts, female subjectivity is presented as a system of processes that dissolve in the fluidity of time, are formed by the selective mechanisms of memory, and maintain their multiplicity in the structure of artistic representation. This approach allows us to understand female identity not only as a social or psychological category, but also as a phenomenon that is formed within the artistic experience of time. Thus, Winterson's deconstruction, Zadie Smith's intersectional identity model, and Ali Smith's timememory experiments demonstrate a radical expansion of female subjectivity in postmodern and contemporary English prose. Together, these three trends demonstrate that contemporary artistic thought does not conceive of female identity as a fixed social role or a homogeneous psychological structure; rather, it portrays identity as an open system, constantly changing, multilayered, and shaped by cultural-symbolic processes.  The Disintegration of Female Subjectivity: Literary Motifs and Techniques In modern and postmodern English prose, the disintegration of female subjectivity is most often revealed through the motifs of psychological tension and internal fragmentation; here, stream of consciousness, introspection, and fragmented time structures become the main artistic mechanisms that both expand and destroy the subject's possibilities for self-awareness. The continuous, uncontrolled, and multilayered movement of the stream of consciousness separates the rhythm of a woman's thoughts from external events, highlighting the turbulent, nonlinear, and sometimes incomprehensible dynamics of her inner world; this technique allows the crisis of self-awareness to be transformed into an aesthetic form, just as it expresses the psychological fragmentation of Woolf's heroes [26, p. 93]. Fragmented time, in turn, intensifies the subject's encounter with traumatic memory: the disruption of the sequence of memories, the flexible movement of time on the past-present-future axis, reveals the damaged layers of the psyche and more sharply demonstrates the problems of identity that accompany memory loss [9, p. 57]. The combination of these motifs portrays female subjectivity as a psychological process that struggles with trauma and is constantly being reconstructed, rather than a stable self-assertion. 64 Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 Another important line that determines the collapse of female subjectivity is the structures of social space burdened with patriarchal control; elements such as the family institution, the home space and economic dependence show that women's identity is formed under the burden of not only personal but also social problems. The home space inherited from the Victorian tradition becomes a control mechanism that keeps women within the invisible walls of society, and the closed structure of this space severely limits the subject's possibilities for self-expression [13, p. 54]. The normative framework of the family institution increases women's emotional and economic dependence, thus condemning their agency to structured passivity; this situation creates the social basis of psychological tension, which manifests itself in modern and postmodern texts as inner anxiety, silent rebellion and attempts at self-affirmation [20, p. 73]. Control over the body and gender pressures, in turn, shape women's identity under the influence of physical and symbolic constraints; here the body becomes both an object of patriarchal control and a possible space of resistance. Thus, social space becomes a complex system of pressures that cause the disintegration of subjectivity not only from within but also from without. The disintegration of female subjectivity leads to radical changes not only at the psychological and social level, but also at the structure of language and narrative. Broken syntax, gaps within the text, incomplete sentences, and sudden changes in narrative direction reflect the fragmented nature of identity at the formal level; such linguistic structures describe the fluidity, rhythmic instability, and transitional forms of female experience, in line with Cixous’s concept of écriture féminine [6, p. 880]. Polyphonic narrative, on the other hand, shows that female subjectivity is not constructed from a single perspective, but through different voices, viewpoints, and emotional tones; this method reveals the heterogeneity of female identity, especially in postmodern texts [23, p. 41]. Autobiographical components and the strengthening of the autobiographical style serve the function of women's writing both to document personal experience and to question patriarchal discourse: here, the fragmentation of identity is not only a plot element, but also an attempt by the subject who creates the text to rewrite his or her own internal history [21, p. 52]. Thus, the dissolution of female subjectivity at the level of literary motifs and techniques is presented as a complex process formed at the intersection of aesthetic innovation, psychological depth, and social criticism; this process transforms the text not only into a story, but also into an artistic laboratory of the crisis of the self.  Case Study In Virginia Woolf’s modernist poetics, the disintegration and reconstruction of female subjectivity is presented as an artistic process, worked out to the most subtle psychological layers; in the novel “Mrs. Dalloway”, the inner world of Clarissa Dalloway, which fits into one day, unfolds against the background of a rhythmic disorganization of consciousness, a non-chronological flow of memories and a continuous change of emotional impulses. Here, the disintegration of consciousness is not just a psychological turmoil, but also a structural principle that shows the division of female subjectivity between social and personal roles: on the one hand, Clarissa is the bearer of social politeness, the status of a housewife, upper-class norms of behavior, and on the other hand, she is an internal subject who is faced with the meaninglessness of her own desires, past passions and current life [26, p. 93]. The conflict that arises between these two opposing layers allows Woolf to describe female identity not as a fixed social role, but as a psychological construct that is constantly renewed and reorganized by the slightest emotional impulses. In To the Lighthouse, however, the fragmentation of consciousness takes on a more archival, more deeply metaphysical tone: here the interruptions of time, the fog of space, and the interweaving of characters’ inner speech emphasize the construction of female subjectivity in memory, loss, and the custody of time. In Mrs. Ramsay, the woman is a subject divided between the center of the family and her own inner desires, and this fragmentation is artistically etched into the structure of the novel itself—through fragmentation, silence, and psychological gaps [26, p. 17]. Thus, in Woolf’s works, the fragmentation of consciousness becomes an artistic device for creating the multiplicity of female subjectivity, not its weakness. Doris Lessing’s novel The Golden Notebook presents psychic fragmentation as a feminist metaphor in a profound and multifaceted way; the disintegration of female subjectivity is linked to ideological, emotional, and personal collapses. The novel’s protagonist, Anna Wulf, documents her life by dividing it into four different-colored notebooks, and this structure itself symbolizes the unintegratable fragments of subjectivity [15, p. 142]. For Anna, psychological fragmentation is not a sense of damaged self, but rather an attempt to understand and manage the chaos created by patriarchal and ideological pressures. Her ideological disillusionment with the communist movement, emotional fluctuations in personal relationships, and intellectual struggle to preserve her identity as a writer cause the woman’s individual “self” to disintegrate in several directions at once. As a result of this disintegration, Anna realizes that the boundaries of her self are not fixed and that true subjectivity can only be achieved through fragmentation. At the end of the novel, the “golden notebook” becomes a symbolic space where all the fragments come together but do not claim to be whole; this space confirms the rejection of the classical model of stability of female subjectivity and the fact that identity is a process of constant reconstruction [15, p. 188]. Lessing’s artistic strategy not only depicts the internal tensions of modern female subjectivity, but also turns them into a fundamental methodological principle for feminist selfawareness. Thus, the analysis of the works of Woolf and Lessing shows that the dissolution of female subjectivity becomes an integral part of the process of creativity and self-understanding in both modernist and postmodern contexts; this dissolution is not the result, but the beginning of an artistic path in which women form their identity more deeply and freely. Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 65 Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber is one of the most striking examples of radical feminist poetics, combining the deconstruction of patriarchal myths with the reimagining of female desire and power; it aims to dismantle the hidden ideological foundations of classical fairy tales and free female subjectivity from the oppressive frames of passivity. Carter dismantles the structure of patriarchal narratives that present women as either silent victims or seductive objects and activates women’s desire, sexual subjectivity, and intuitive power in the text; this becomes both an artistic transformation and a practical application of feminist theory [24, p. 63]. In The Bloody Chamber, female desire is depicted as a source of creative power, not chaos; the heroine’s regaining control over her body, choice, and will signals the collapse of the patriarchal mythic system. This deconstruction is not only evident at the level of plot, but also in the symbolism of language, the depiction of spaces, and the poetics of power relations: woman is no longer a being to be protected or directed, but a subject who writes her own destiny, shapes her desires, and openly declares her power. Thus, Carter's mixed, terrifyingly and aesthetically richly layered textual world transforms female subjectivity from an object of patriarchal fantasy into an artistic force acting on its own will and desire. Zadie Smith’s novel Swing Time acts as a multilayered laboratory of identity that shows how female subjectivity is shaped at the intersection of color, gender, and class; where the story of two girls’ friendship becomes a broad metaphor that reveals the complex social structures of modern society and the impact of these structures on female identity. The novel’s unnamed protagonist grows up in a world of conflicting experiences of race and cultural identity, struggling to construct a sense of self amidst the tensions created by social inequalities, invisible boundaries, and collective expectations; a process that suggests that female subjectivity is shaped not only by personal internal dynamics but also by broader social forces [22, p. 74]. In the world Smith describes, female identity is inseparable from intersecting factors such as color and class, and these intersections deeply structure the subject’s behavior, emotions, desires, and self-understanding. One of the novel’s most important themes is the breakdown of the self as a social construct: the protagonist is unable to translate her experiences into a coherent and coherent narrative of identity, as the cultural and social forces that surround her demand constant change, uncertainty, and adaptation. As a result of this instability, the sense of self is detached from chronological order, disintegrated under the influence of fragmented memory and ever-changing social roles; thus, Swing Time emphasizes that female subjectivity in the modern world is not static, but rather a dynamic and multifaceted process [22, p. 81]. Smith’s text shows that the identity of the modern woman is not the result of individual choices alone, nor of social pressure alone; it is precisely at their intersection, in a space of sometimes contradictory dialogue. Thus, Carter's patriarchal myth-busting feminism and Smith's intersectional identity model demonstrate how female subjectivity is presented in contemporary prose in a multifaceted, often both disruptive and creative, way; both works portray female identity as not just a reaction to social roles, but also as an active process with the power to reinvent itself.  Philosophical traces of the crisis of the "modern self" in women's writing To understand how the crisis of the “modern self” manifests itself in women’s writing, it is first necessary to consider the central role that the problem of freedom plays in the formation of women’s subjectivity; for freedom is both the beginning of a woman’s ability to define her own identity and the area in which she must constantly struggle. Beauvoir’s theory of the formation of woman as a social construct suggests that women must construct their subjectivity not only outside of social expectations but also through their internal mechanisms of resistance [1, p. 112]. In this sense, freedom in women’s writing is never a fully achieved state; rather, it is a continuous process of attempting to define herself within the boundaries constantly reproduced by patriarchal structures. Like Woolf’s heroines, modern female characters seek a tense psychological balance between experiencing freedom and the possibility of its impossibility; this balance is accompanied by a fragmented sense of self and constant attempts at self-awareness [26, p. 17]. In postmodern conditions, the concept of identity becomes more complex; identity is no longer fixed and homogeneous, but is presented as an open system formed at the multilayered intersection of language, social roles, cultural codes and personal experiences. The hybrid characters created by Zadie Smith become an artistic model of this situation: their identity is constantly reconstructed in changing social contexts and never becomes a complete, self-sufficient structure [22, p. 74]. In the postmodern text, the multi-layeredness of female subjectivity is presented not only as an artistic figure, but also as a philosophical issue; because here the subject is the bearer of several affiliations at the same time, and the tension arising between these affiliations constitutes the essence of her act of self-understanding. The multi-layeredness of identity opens up new possibilities for women's writing at the level of structure, language and perspective, because each layer represents both an internal fragment of the subject and the normative expectations directed at it by society. In this context, the unstable, situational, and performative nature of the “self” becomes one of the philosophical foundations of women’s writing. Butler’s model of performativity suggests that identity is not a fixed entity but a process that emerges as a result of repeated performances of social behaviors [4, p. 45]; this plays an important key role in the artistic depiction of female subjectivity. The female character does not define her “self” once and for all; on the contrary, as the situation changes, this “self” is transformed: sometimes it is strengthened, sometimes weakened, and sometimes completely destroyed and rebuilt. Like Angela Carter’s heroes who deconstruct patriarchal myths, the modern female character is based on situational power, rewritten desires, and performative behaviors formed against the background of social pressures [24, p. 63]. The unstable concept of “self” is depicted in women’s writing 66 Norwegian Journal of development of the International Science No 170/2025 not as a weakness, but rather as a dynamic power that keeps pace with the multiplicity of existence; this power allows the subject to perceive both herself and the world in a more flexible and nuanced way. Thus, the crisis of the "modern self" is accompanied by an artistic reworking of not only psychological and social tensions in women's writing, but also philosophical issues such as freedom, identity, and performativity; this creates conditions for female subjectivity to take on a deeper, more multifaceted, and intellectually charged form in contemporary prose. Conclusion The study of female subjectivity in contemporary English prose shows that female identity is no longer understood as a fixed, unchanging, and socially constrained structure, but as a dynamic process that is constantly being renewed, shaped by various cultural, psychological, and aesthetic forces. The literary evolution from the classical period to modernism and from there to postmodern writing shows that a woman's search for self is closely connected not only with the questioning of individual experience, but also with the questioning of the ideological, social, and linguistic structures of the surrounding world. Woolf's inner depth revealed by stream-of-consciousness, Mansfield's emotional fragmentation, Lessing's metaphors of psychological collapse, Carter's radical gestures that dismantle patriarchal myths, and Zadie Smith's intersectional identity model demonstrate the tensions that female subjectivity goes through at different stages, the forms in which it is dissolved, and the new spaces in which it is reconstructed. What these works have in common is that the crisis of the “modern self” is not destructive for female subjectivity; on the contrary, it opens up a creative opportunity for rethinking oneself, analyzing social roles, and voicing denied desires and experiences. Women’s writing does not remain silent in the face of the challenges of modernity and postmodernity—on the contrary, it turns fragmentation into the starting point of the search for self. From this perspective, female subjectivity in contemporary prose is neither just a form of social resistance nor just a means of psychological expression; it is a multi-layered process that reveals the philosophical, poetic, and intellectual depths of identity. Thus, the dissolution and reconstruction of subjectivity in women's writing becomes an indicator of both literary innovation, social transformation, and the unfettered redefinition of the human self. Modern English prose is not only an observer of this process, but also an active participant—it acts as a laboratory for future forms of female subjectivity. References: 1. Beauvoir, S. de. The Second Sex. Vintage Books, 2011. 2. Bauman, Z. Liquid Modernity. Polity Press, 2000. 3. Bhabha, HK The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994. 4. Butler, J. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1990. 5. Carter, A. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. Vintage, 2006. 6. Cixous, H. "The Laugh of the Medusa." Signs 1, no. 4 (1976): 875–893. 7. Felski, R. Literature after Feminism. University of Chicago Press, 2003. 8. Foucault, M. The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1: An Introduction. Vintage, 1990. 9. Freud, S. The Ego and the Id. W. W. Norton, 1960. 10. Giddens, A. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford University Press, 1991. 11. Gilbert, S. & Gubar, S. The Madwoman in the Attic. Yale University Press, 1979. 12. Irigaray, L. This Sex Which Is Not One. Cornell University Press, 1985. 13. Kierkegaard, S. The Sickness unto Death. Penguin Classics, 2004. 14. Lacan, J. Écrits. WW Norton, 2006. 15. Lessing, D. The Golden Notebook. Harper Perennial, 2007. 16. Mansfield, K. The Collected Stories. Penguin Classics, 2007. 17. Moi, T. Sexual/Textual Politics. Routledge, 2002. 18. Mulvey, L. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen 16, no. 3 (1975): 6–18. 19. Rich, A. Of Woman Born. W. W. Norton, 1995. 20. Showalter, E. A Literature of Their Own. Princeton University Press, 1999. 21. Smith, A. How to Be Both. Penguin, 2014. 22. Smith, Z. Swing Time. Penguin, 2016. 23. Waugh, P. Feminine Fictions. Routledge, 1989. 24. Winterson, J. Written on the Body. Vintage, 1993. 25. Wittig, M. The Straight Mind and Other Essays. Beacon Press, 1992. 26. Woolf, W. To the Lighthouse. Harcourt Brace, 1981. 27. Woolf, V. A Room of One's Own. Penguin Classics, 2000.