Voicing Voluntary Childlessness
Narratives of Non-Mothering in French
Published on 29. December 2015
VIII, 214 pages
978-3-0353-0795-5 (ISBN)
Description
The decision to reject motherhood is the subject of several key works of literature in French since the new millennium. This book looks at first-person accounts of voluntary childlessness by women writing in French. The book explores how women narrate their decision not to mother, the issues that they face in doing so and the narrative techniques that they employ to justify their stories. It asks how these authors challenge stereotypes of the childless woman by claiming their own identity in narrative, publicly proclaiming their right to choose and writing a femininity that is not connected to motherhood.
Using feminist, sociological and psychoanalytic theories to interrogate non-mothering, this work is the first book-length study of narratives that counter this long-standing taboo. It brings together authors who stake out a new terrain, creating a textual space in which to take ownership of their childlessness and call for new understandings of female identity beyond maternity.
Using feminist, sociological and psychoanalytic theories to interrogate non-mothering, this work is the first book-length study of narratives that counter this long-standing taboo. It brings together authors who stake out a new terrain, creating a textual space in which to take ownership of their childlessness and call for new understandings of female identity beyond maternity.
Reviews / Votes
«This book - which is written beautifully, with exemplary clarity - offers a fascinating exploration of voluntary childlessness in contemporary French texts, as well as articulating a paradigm shift in the relation between maternity (refused or otherwise) and identity.»(Kathryn Robson, French Studies: A Quarterly Review, Vol.72, No.1/2018)
«In what is a timely move, Nathalie Edwards has produced an original and fascinating book which constitutes a bold intervention in the field of motherhood studies and an innovative contribution to studies in life writing.»
(Shirley Jordan, Life Writing Jun. 2017)
«Voicing Voluntary Childlessness est d'une indéniable importance pour l'étude de la littérature contemporaine des femmes en ce qu'il s'attache aux alternatives à une identité féminine normative et touche à un sujet encore tabou qu'est le refus ou le non-désir d'être mère.»
(Evelyne Ledoux-Beaugrand, Romanische Forschungen 129 / 2017)
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Studies in Contemporary Women's Writing
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Peter Lang Verlag
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Person
Natalie Edwards is Senior Lecturer in French Studies and a member of the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide, Australia. She holds a PhD from Northwestern University and specializes in contemporary French and Francophone literature, autobiography, gender studies and visual culture. She is the author of Shifting Subjects: Plural Subjectivity in Contemporary Francophone Women's Autobiography (2011) and co-editor most recently of Framing French Culture: Photography and the Visual Arts (2015).
Content
Contents: Perspectives on Voluntary Childlessness - Theorising Voluntary Childlessness - Psychoanalysing Voluntary Childlessness - Expressions of Voluntary Childlessness - Linda Lê's Epistolary Innovation: À l'enfant que je n'aurai pas - Jane Sautière's Autofictional Explorations: Nullipare - The Struggle of Personal Criticism: Lucie Joubert's L'Envers du landau - The Ageing Voluntarily Childless Woman: Madeleine Chapsal's La Femme sans.
