Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and MelodramaFrom novels of the nineteenth century to films of the 1990s, American culture, abounds with images of white, middle-class mothers. In Motherhood and Representation, E. Ann Kaplan considers how the mother appears in three related spheres: the historical, in which she charts changing representations of the mother from 1830 to the postmodernist present; the psychoanalytic, which discusses theories of the mother from Freud to Lacan and the French Feminists; and the mother as she is figured in cultural representations: in literary and film texts such as East Lynne, Marnie and the The Handmaid's Tale, as well as in journalism and popular manuals on motherhood. Kaplan's analysis identifies two dominant paradigms of the mother as `Angel' and `Witch', and charts the contesting and often contradictory discourses of the mother in present-day America. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 93
Page xii
... mother-position if she ever becomes a mother. The book is also an attempt to ... child rearing; society accepts women who combine motherhood and careers, at ... child's achievements have now intensified and become more widespread. There ...
... mother-position if she ever becomes a mother. The book is also an attempt to ... child rearing; society accepts women who combine motherhood and careers, at ... child's achievements have now intensified and become more widespread. There ...
Page xiii
... mothers' horizons, including child abuse in day care centers and with baby sitters, increasing child kidnapping, or the fear that one's child will be killed by a stray bullet. While such happenings have long been a reality for many ...
... mothers' horizons, including child abuse in day care centers and with baby sitters, increasing child kidnapping, or the fear that one's child will be killed by a stray bullet. While such happenings have long been a reality for many ...
Page 3
... Mother, as subject in her own right, had received relatively scant scholarly treatment (see E.A. Kaplan 1983c). The ... child (male or female) or in that of an adult (male or female) concerned to attribute all ills to the mother. An ...
... Mother, as subject in her own right, had received relatively scant scholarly treatment (see E.A. Kaplan 1983c). The ... child (male or female) or in that of an adult (male or female) concerned to attribute all ills to the mother. An ...
Page 4
... child for its own sake been examined. No one has yet answered Kristeva's question, “What is it about this representation (of the patriarchal or Christian Maternal) that fails to take account of what a woman might say or want of the Maternal ...
... child for its own sake been examined. No one has yet answered Kristeva's question, “What is it about this representation (of the patriarchal or Christian Maternal) that fails to take account of what a woman might say or want of the Maternal ...
Page 6
... child-care experts), it was impossible to account for these representations without reference to the “historical” and “psychoanalytic” discursive levels. The book analyzes the mother ... mother. The fourth mother, who may 6 MOTHERHOOD AND ...
... child-care experts), it was impossible to account for these representations without reference to the “historical” and “psychoanalytic” discursive levels. The book analyzes the mother ... mother. The fourth mother, who may 6 MOTHERHOOD AND ...
Contents
Part II Motherhood and fictional representation | 57 |
Notes | 220 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Names index | 239 |
Subject index | 245 |
Other editions - View all
Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan Limited preview - 2013 |
Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
American argue articulated baby Barbara briefly Carlyle Carlyle’s century Chapter child Chodorow Christopher Strong codes complicit concept confine conflict constructed culture Cynthia daughter defined desire developed difficult discussed dominant East Lynne erotic explore fantasies father female feminine feminism feminist fiction fictional figure film film versions film’s final finally find first focus foetus Freud Freudian gaze gender genre Handmaid’s Tale Harriet heroine historical Hollywood ideal identification ideology images Imaginary Irigaray Isabel Kristeva Lacanian Levison linked Lois Weber male Marnie maternal melodrama maternal sacrifice middle-class mother mother-figure mother—child mother—daughter motherhood discourses narrative nineteenth-century North America notes novel nuclear family Oankali Oedipal paradigm patriarchal Peola phallic phallus popular position postmodern pre-Oedipal produced psychic psychoanalytic theory reflects relation relationship representations represents reproductive technologies resisting role Rousseau sexual significant significantly social specific spectator sphere Stella Dallas Symbolic terrain unconscious upper-class Weber woman woman’s women