“I’m not afraid of being called a loser”: the issue of agency in Finn’s identity construction in the television series Glee

Abstract

This article analyzes the television series Glee and discusses the ways in which Finn’s identity construction – and his irresolution – can be read counter-hegemonically as fostering political agency. In order to do so, I discuss the concepts of identity and agency and notions such as social location and identification while conducting a textual analysis of specific scenes that pertain to the first season of the series. The analysis highlights that the character’s experience with the Glee club seems to be important for the constant re-construction of his identity. Such reconstruction is always part of a double movement: Finn, as a postmodern subject, is overtly contradictory. While his identity construction can be considered transgressive, at times his actions are in fact very conservative. Finn’s identity construction seems to demonstrate the ways in which Glee can be considered an example of postmodern contingency while being inserted simultaneously within restraining hegemonic discourse.