Proceeding of Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Linguistic, and Cultural Studies
Vol. 6 No. 1 (2026): Vol. 6 No. 1 (2026): UNCOLLCS: PROCEEDING RESEARCH ON LITERARY, LINGUISTIC, AND

Female existentialist freedom and self-becoming in Maybe in Another Life

Sanca Odigitria Manesanulu (Unknown)
Linusia Marsih (Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya)



Article Info

Publish Date
04 Aug 2026

Abstract

Patriarchal structures have long confined women to subordinate roles, and literature offers a space to examine such structures and women's responses to them. This study uses feminist literary criticism, guided by Simone de Beauvoir's feminist existentialist framework, to examine Hannah Martin's position as a woman and how her choices across two parallel life paths reflect her movement within that position, in Taylor Jenkins Reid's Maybe in Another Life (2015), a narrative built around a single decision that splits Hannah's life into two trajectories. The research addresses two questions, the conditions that shape Hannah's position as a woman, and how her choices reflect her movement within that position. The study applies four concepts from Beauvoir's framework, woman as the Other, freedom and choice, transcendence and immanence, and the social construction of feminine identity. The method is descriptive qualitative, with the novel as the primary data source and the researcher as the main instrument for collecting and interpreting narrations, dialogues, and character actions. The results show that before the novel's split, Hannah exists within conditions that position her as the Other, marked by relational dependence, economic instability, and surrendering decisions to fate. Across both paths, she moves toward self-direction and the claiming of her own subjecthood, though neither path concludes with complete freedom.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

uncollcs

Publisher

Subject

Humanities Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

Proceeding of Undergraduate Conference on Literature, Linguistic, and Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed proceeding, open access, and annual academic proceeding dedicated to the publications of research in the areas of linguistics, literature, and culture studies that had been disseminated in the ...