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. |
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Page 8
... narratives. In the past century, changes in the macro-historical sphere have been dramatic and rapid, impacting directly on both the family as institution, and particularly on the mother. The impact of reproductive technologies, and the ...
... narratives. In the past century, changes in the macro-historical sphere have been dramatic and rapid, impacting directly on both the family as institution, and particularly on the mother. The impact of reproductive technologies, and the ...
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... narrative forms that have wide appeal (they are often literally linked in the mining of popular fiction by film ... narratives about women's issues helps to illuminate what is going on in these mass narratives of our period. (I leave it ...
... narrative forms that have wide appeal (they are often literally linked in the mining of popular fiction by film ... narratives about women's issues helps to illuminate what is going on in these mass narratives of our period. (I leave it ...
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... narrative level. The distinction refers to the way the narrative assumes the mother is either positioned by unconscious, mythic processes beyond her control, or sees her as positioned historically by social institutions (theoretically ...
... narrative level. The distinction refers to the way the narrative assumes the mother is either positioned by unconscious, mythic processes beyond her control, or sees her as positioned historically by social institutions (theoretically ...
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... narratives (viz. Medea, King Lear as examples) is all but eclipsed by nineteenth-century sentimentalism. By and large, the paradigm of the fearsome, dominating mother becomes central only in the ... narrative on to the level 13 INTRODUCTION.
... narratives (viz. Medea, King Lear as examples) is all but eclipsed by nineteenth-century sentimentalism. By and large, the paradigm of the fearsome, dominating mother becomes central only in the ... narrative on to the level 13 INTRODUCTION.
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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