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
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Page 3
... Mother, as subject in her own right, had received relatively scant scholarly ... figure in the design, out-of-focus; or, if in focus, then the brunt of an ... mother. An absent presence, then. Present but absent. Two scenes in two very ...
... Mother, as subject in her own right, had received relatively scant scholarly ... figure in the design, out-of-focus; or, if in focus, then the brunt of an ... mother. An absent presence, then. Present but absent. Two scenes in two very ...
Page 4
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. Figure 1 King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) John Smith's father waits nervously to learn he has a boy. The mother who has given birth is excluded from the scene. Mirror image shows ...
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. Figure 1 King Vidor's The Crowd (1928) John Smith's father waits nervously to learn he has a boy. The mother who has given birth is excluded from the scene. Mirror image shows ...
Page 5
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. Figure 2 King Vidor's Stella Dallas (1937) Stella's prematurely aged mother silently slaves away at the sink in rear of the frame, while Stella and her brother discuss his lunch ...
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. Figure 2 King Vidor's Stella Dallas (1937) Stella's prematurely aged mother silently slaves away at the sink in rear of the frame, while Stella and her brother discuss his lunch ...
Page 7
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. mother, and the unconscious mother. The fourth mother, who may be called the “real life” mother (the bodily mother) or the historical figure who interacts daily with her child ...
The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama E. Ann Kaplan. mother, and the unconscious mother. The fourth mother, who may be called the “real life” mother (the bodily mother) or the historical figure who interacts daily with her child ...
Page 8
... mother (who lies beyond my frame); an early modern mother (who emerges in ... figure is currently being constructed in response to social developments ... mother” as a new, self-conscious, patriarchal social role (with Rousseau); through ...
... mother (who lies beyond my frame); an early modern mother (who emerges in ... figure is currently being constructed in response to social developments ... mother” as a new, self-conscious, patriarchal social role (with Rousseau); through ...
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