Narratives of Mothering
WomenOs Writing in Contemporary France
Published on 1. May 2009
Book
Hardback
1 pages
978-1-61149-104-3 (ISBN)
Description
Mothers appear everywhere in French literature, but they have primarily been portrayed from the perspectives of others. However, in contemporary woman-authored literature, mothers are now becoming narrative subjects in their own right. This book engages with this important new phenomenon by examining autobiographical and fictional narratives of mothering in literature by women on the cusp of the millennium, from the early 1990s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. It explores the themes that these literary narratives address and the issues they raise. It asks whether they reproduce dominant patterns and discourses or interrogate, challenge, and start to reinvent mothering. It also considers what they tell us about women's own desires, fears, anxieties, fantasies, and imaginative concepts of mothering as well as about how literature engages with the emerging trends and changing experiences of being a mother in contemporary France.
Reviews / Votes
This text makes an important intervention in the field of contemporary French women's writing, returning to what might initially be considered an 'old' trope of the maternal, but reinvigorating the topic by showing its enduring importance and relevance in contemporary French women's writing. Carefully researched, written, and edited and offering both originality and breadth in its critical perspective, this book will represent a useful companion for many scholars in the field. * Contemporary Women's Writing * In this book Gill Rye provides an impressive disciplinary account of evolving narratives and emerging trends in French fiction.... Rye tackles ongoing issues and offers fresh and perceptive insights into concepts which may have previously seemed fixed, such as the representation of 'motherhood' or 'the maternal'. The variety of authors studied, paired by two for each theme, is a clear indicator that Rye wants to stretch the limits of (newly established) canonical texts and generate further fruitful parallels. * Modern Language Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
458 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-61149-104-3 (9781611491043)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gill Rye is reader at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London.