The Lady Vanishes: The Rise of the Spectral Mother (original) (raw)
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The Discursive Suppression of Women: Female Evils as the Villains of the Motherhood Narrative
Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2011
This article focuses on the discursive construction and control of female sexuality and sexual activity, which simultaneously lead to the definition of women as inherently evil and to their suppression. This process is reinforced through a "motherhood narrative" inaugurated by a number of discourses, wherein female evils play the role of the villains, either as evil women or as anthropomorphised female beings that harm the mother or the unborn/newborn baby. The role of the "female evil", a universally occurring archetypal motif, is to steal, kill or harm the child or the mother during pregnancy, labour, or puerperium. This motif is taken into account particularly in the framework of discourses that can be termed as medico-religious. Case studies of female evils are given as examples in the article, with a focus on the motherhood narrative and medico-religious discourses. This focus provides an insight to the way in which female evils pertain to the suppression of women within a more general framework. Female evils appear as necessary constructs of the aforementioned discourses to be able to control female sexual activity and the motherhood related fears of women, especially through the internalisation of control and through shaping the relationship of women with other women.
“What is to be a ‘Mother’?”—An Exposition of “Non-biological Mothers” in Literary Texts
English Language and Literature Studies, 2016
This paper investigates the identity formation of "non-biological mothers" in a sample of texts which include primarily "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by Bertolt Brecht, "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë and "Eveline" by James Joyce. Three characters are selected from the works who perform the role of "mother" at different levels for children who are "biologically" not their own. In Brecht's play, Grusha cares for the child that is left by his own mother. In Bronte's novel, Nelly Dean looks after both Hareton and Junior Catherine, children who have lost their "biological" mother, as well as Heathcliff who is brought to the house as an orphan. In Joyce's short story, Eveline performs the role of mother and remains in Dublin defying her boyfriend's attempts to take her away to possible happiness in a faraway land. In the study, these three figures and their role as "mother" are the primary focus. However, characters such as the first wife of Okonkwo in "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achabe and Anna-Maria in "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen are also be examined to understand how women who have their own children, become committed towards children who are "biologically" not their own. The study elucidates the way this role of "non-biological mother" is constructed in various literary contexts and more specifically how these "non-biological mothers" are not recognized and their love regarded as subservient to the "love" of the "biological mother". A textual analysis of texts is used to interpret these characters in their specific literary settings. In this manner, the study promotes a re-reading of the role of "non-biological mothers" and re-interprets the socio-political implications of the role of "mother" as well as the concept of "motherhood".
Feminism Representations in “The Revolt of ‘Mother’”
“The Revolt of ‘Mother’” was first published in 1890, a controversial time for women. According to Donovan, “arguably, these years entailed the greatest changes that had ever occurred in any women’s lives. For the first time women were allowed into universities; for the first time, into professions such as medicine. For the first time women had a genuine opportunity to leave the world of traditional woman – the home – and the traditional roles of wife and mother” (43). Thus, “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” can be seen as a feminist story.
Motherhood to mothering and beyond: Maternity in recent feminist thought
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research …, 2006
identzfying within it a sh ftfiom essentialism to poststructuralism, expressed as a change in terminologvfiom "motherhood" to "mothering." It draws on the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Adrienne Rich, Sara Ruddick, and Judith Butler, amongothers. FollowingButler, itofers the notion ofinaternalperformativity' as potentially inspiring. To understand mothering as performative is to conceive of it as an active practice-a notion that is already progressive, given the traditional Western understanding of the mother as passive--that may also be subversive. Maternalperformativity also challenges the idea of the mother as origin. However, the notion does have its problems, not least because it fails to acknowledge the relational, ethical aspect of mothering behaviours. I argue, then, for aperformative maternal ethics, characterized by relationality and bodiliness. A key site fir its performance would be literature; reading and writing may produce new identzjications with others and may therefore be viewed as "maternal," ethicalactivities. The article ends by calling for further explorations of the link between mothering and artistic practice.
Constructions of Motherhood in the 19th Century British and North American Novel
2018
Bachelor's Thesis exploring the constructions of motherhood in Sedgwick's A New England Tale, Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Chopin's The Awakening. At first, this work will discuss the historical background of the nineteenth century in the context of industrialisation and societal change. Then follows a description of the role of the family and the home before the role of women in terms of societal demands and the law is described. Next, a brief outline about the role of the novel is given. Finally, terminology and definitions are discussed preceding the detailed analysis of the novels. The analysis, then, is based on two aspects: a context-oriented approach and the distinction of three entwined factors of motherhood in the given context. The aim is to explore the different representations of motherhood in relation to their extratextual reality, namely the historical and political context. The question remains what motherhood is or how to define motherhood in the given context of the nineteenth-century novel. The basic definition that it means to carry and then give birth to a child is not sufficient because motherhood may manifest in various shapes with different aspects. In contrast to today, common occurrences like divorce, in vitro fertilisation, and surrogate mothers were not phenomena of nineteenth-century reality. Notwithstanding, the death of a mother, adoption, foster care, indenture, or similar arrangements for apprentices were part of it. These women had a relationship with children who were not the result of their own reproduction, and, in some cases, they were recognised as mothers. Nineteenth-century novels that deal with motherhood draw images of these constructions of motherhood, but what were the requirements for motherhood, then? Motherhood in the context of the nineteenth-century British and North American Novel is a concept that describes the relationship between a female and a child that is based on either a biological or a legal connection combined with a mutual social/emotional/moral attachment and, most importantly, with an acceptance of the relationship by both.
Tracing the Feminist Maternal in a European Context: A Review
Hypatia, 2024
“What might motherhood and Europe have to do with one another?” is a question posed by Lisa Baraitser in the Foreword to the collection, Motherhood in Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Europe. The question is certainly pertinent at a time when the very concept of Europe as a geopolitical space and an imaginary construct is being interrogated and critiqued from both within and without the carefully policed borders of the European Union project. It is also pertinent given the increased amount of scholarship on the maternal produced by scholars occupying various transnational locations and positionalities, working to deconstruct unitary and essentialist ideas about mothers and motherhood. The possibility of identifying a specifically European maternal theoretical and lived space thus invites us to carefully theorize the diversity of European contexts, a diversity that is often occluded or elided by easy references to Eurocentric bias in feminist research, as well as the dis/continuities between European-based and Anglo-American feminist scholarship on the maternal. And yet, precisely because the work of mothering always unfolds within specific micro and macro geographic, social, cultural, and ideological spaces, the question merits closer attention. In this essay I consider the cluster of three books delineating the contours of an Italian, as well as a more broadly conceptualized European, philosophy of the maternal in light of these evolving academic and experiential realities.
2022
This book explores case studies in which we can find evidences of “motherhood as an institution” imposed by the Church Fathers as well as changes and continuity with previous norms merge, mothers’ response to religious norms imposed by them, and the legacy derived from the Church Fathers around and beyond the Mediterranean. Some stereotypes about mothers are extremely powerful and long-lasting, sometimes in contrast with each other, such as that of the mater dolorosa and that of the mother eager and happy for the death of her martyred child. Moreover, biblical literature is full of maternal figures who deserve to be investigated, not only Mary. It is worth noticing how spiritual motherhood has become more and more important while biological motherhood is sometimes indicated as an obstacle in the path to sanctity; this is accompanied by the increasing relevance of the role of mothers as “religious enculturators”.