Leyendo la identidad en La distancia que nos separa

This article examines the relationship between reading and identity in The Distance Between Us (2015) by Renato Cisneros, exploring how the protagonist reconstructs his identity through reading his family’s past, particularly the figure of his father. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach —drawing from literature, sociology, gender studies, and psychoanalysis— Discourse Analysis is used to investigate the performativity of reading in shaping subjectivity.The study is situated within the framework of patriographic narratives, highlighting how the novel engages with first-person literature and memoir. The work not only reconstructs the father’s image, but also critically examines hegemonic masculinity, revealing violence, silence, and discipline as structuring elements of male identity.The article presents an innovative perspective by considering reading as a performative act that transforms the subject. Through rereading his father—and the inherited narratives—Cisneros resignifies his identity, shifting from a reading of opposition and imitation, to one of negotiation. The research underscores literature as a space for identity reconfiguration, where autobiography not only reconstructs the past, but also operates on the narrator’s present.