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In this collection, contributors reject the narrative that suggests that the pain of mothers must never be exposed. They allow their pain to wander outside the frame of the requisite pathos; individual pieces reveal pain to be a complex and intersectional practice that encompasses denial and disenfranchisement where pain is birthed and named; disorientation leading to a search for stable ground; destabilization that inspires non-normative mothering; and discovery as an active stance that transforms intergenerational pain. As contributors take up the challenge of unravelling their stories, they reach for a life-sustaining and hopeful shift in consciousness that allows them to listen to what pain has to offer without judgment; to imagine and create a different future for themselves, their children, and the world; and to let go of maternal pain and suffering as a way of being. Readers will be inspired by raw honesty, authenticity, and willingness to embrace story as a gift to self.
Matricentric feminism seeks to make motherhood the business of feminism by positioning mothers' needs and concerns as the starting point for a theory and politic on and for the empowerment of women as mothers. Based on the conviction that mothering is a verb, it understands that becoming and being a mother is not limited to biological mothers or cisgender women but rather to anyone who does the work of mothering as a central part of their life. The Mother Wave, the first-ever book on the topic, compellingly explores how mothers need a matricentric mode of feminism organized from and for their particular identity and work as mothers, and because mothers remain disempowered despite sixty years...
Theory on mothers, mothering and motherhood has emerged as a distinct body of knowledge within Motherhood Studies and Feminist Theory more generally. This collection, The Second Edition of Maternal Theory: Essential Readings introduces readers to this rich and diverse tradition of maternal theory. Composed of 60 chapters the 2nd edition includes two sections: the first with the classic texts by Adrienne Rich, Nancy Chodorow, Sara Ruddick, Alice Walker, Barbara Katz Rothman, bell hooks, Sharon Hays, Patricia Hill-Collins, Audre Lorde, Daphne de Marneffe, Judith Warner, Patrice diQinizio, Susan Maushart, and many more. The second section includes thirty new chapters on vital and new topics inc...
This collection belongs on the bookshelves of students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist and queer media studies, labor studies, filmmaking and production, and cultural studies.
In this collection, authors transgress and uphold their maternal integrity as they dance at the edge of comfort and take up the challenge of exploring the boundaries of maternal practice– their own, their mothers, and those found in literature, media, or popular culture. These mothers assume a hopeful stance; actively choose courage over comfort; push through what is fun, fast, or easy, and show how they come to mother outside the lines in all its simplicity and complexity. As they bust outdated, tired, and ambiguous boundaries, they find and (re)set new boundaries that restore dignity and self-respect for themselves, their children, their families, and for the matricentric feminist collective, particularly those whose voices may continue to be silenced and marginalized by structures and limits beyond their control. Thirteen stories are threaded together to form a compelling tale showing how and why some mothers, when faced with ambiguous and untenable boundaries, resist the urge to accept the assumed, the unpredictable, even the demanded– whether they be internal or external, visible or invisible, real or imaginary.
This collection considers how maternal regret, as it is conveyed in remorse, resentment, dissatisfaction, and disappointment, troubles the assumptions and mandates of normative motherhood and how it is explored and critiqued in creative non-fiction, film, literature, and social media. Maternal regret is also examined in relation to the estrangement of mother and child and the remorse and grief felt by both mothers and children caused by the abandonment of mother or child. Finally, the collection explores how regret opens the space for maternal erudition, enlightenment, and evolution; and makes possible maternal empowerment. The book is organized by way of these three sections: the first “R...
"With mass migration changing the configuration of societies worldwide, we can look to the Caribbean to reflect on the long-standing, entangled relations between countries and areas as uneven in size and influence as the United States, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. More so than other world regions, the Caribbean has been characterized as an always already colonial region. It has long been a key area for empires warring over influence spheres in the new world, and where migration waves from Africa, Europe, and Asia accompanied every political transformation over the last five centuries. In Caribbean Migrations, an interdisciplinary group of humanities and social science scholars study migration from a long-term perspective, analyzing the Caribbean's "unincorporated subjects" from a legal, historical, and cultural standpoint, and exploring how despite often fractured public spheres, Caribbean intellectuals, artists, filmmakers, and writers have been resourceful at showcasing migration as the hallmark of our modern age"--
The rise of social media has changed how we understand and enact relationships across our lives, including motherhood. The meanings and practices of mothering have been significantly impacted by the availability of communities found via forums, blogs, and sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as internet resources that function to inform maternal experience and self-concept (ex. motherhood websites, Pinterest, or YouTube). The village that now contributes to the mothering experience has grown exponentially, granting mothers access to interactional partners and knowledge never before available. This volume of works explores the impact of social media forms on our cultural understandings of motherhood and the ways that we communicate about the experience and practice of mothering.
This book invites readers to step lightly into a transformative realm where the conventional narratives of pregnancy, motherhood, and femininity are defied, reshaped, and celebrated. In response to decades of limited portrayals of pregnant women and mothers as merely &‘ good,' &‘ bad,' or &‘ monstrous,' this anthology intervenes with a diverse array of contributions from scholars, artists, activists, and those who have lived the journey of motherhood. It brings forth a colourful mosaic of perspectives that push beyond the confines of societal norms, presenting images, writings, and creative expressions bursting with authenticity and power. This anthology is an affirmation, a celebration, and a transformative journey that invites all to join in reframing the pregnant body and the lived experiences of motherhood, and in to deeper engagements with maternal feminist writing and thought.
Childfree and Happy examines how millennia of reproductive beliefs (or doxa) have positioned women who choose not to have children as deviant or outside the norm. Considering affect and emotion alongside the lived experiences of women who have chosen not to have children, Courtney Adams Wooten offers a new theoretical lens to feminist rhetorical scholars’ examinations of reproductive rhetorics and how they circulate through women’s lives by paying attention not just to spoken or written beliefs but also to affectual circulations of reproductive doxa. Through interviews with thirty-four childfree women and analysis of childfree rhetorics circulating in historical and contemporary texts an...