Trauma and Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture repositions motherhood studies through the lens of trauma theory by exploring new challenges surrounding conception, pregnancy, and postpartum experiences. Chapters investigate nine case studies of motherhood trauma and recovery in literature and culture from the last twenty years by exploring their emotional consequences through the lens of trauma, resilience, and “working through” theories. Contributions engage with a transnational corpus drawn from the five continents and span topics as rarely discussed as pregnancy denial, surrogacy, voluntary or involuntary childlessness, racism and motherhood, carceral mothering practices, surrogacy, IVF, artificial wombs, and mothering through war, genocide, and migration. Accompanied by an online creative supplement, this volume deals with silenced aspects of embodied motherhood while enhancing a better understanding of the cathartic effects of storytelling.
Author(s): Laura Lazzari, Nathalie Ségeral
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 254
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Trauma and Recovery: New Challenges to Motherhood in Contemporary Literature and Culture
Works Cited
Part I: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Trauma
Understanding the Trauma of Pervasive Pregnancy Denial in L’enfant que je n’attendais pas
The Problematics of Representing Denied Pregnancy
Denied Pregnancy and French and Francophone Film
L’enfant que je n’attendais pas as Case Study
Defining Pregnancy Denial
Individual and Collective Denial
Maternal Trauma
Extended Trauma
Judicial Trauma
Recovery Through Support and Education
Works Cited
Filmography
Salvaging the Bones Means Fighting for Reproductive Justice: Jesmyn Ward’s Literary Representations of the Trauma Produced by Attacks on Reproductive Rights, Comprehensive Sex Education, and Access to Maternal Health Care
Salvaging the Bones Means Mourning Maternal Mortality
Salvaging the Bones Means Fighting for Access to Reproductive Health Care and Sex Education
Salvaging the Bones Means Creating Safe Environments for Black Families
Works Cited
Social Trauma and the Anti-Maternal Body in Diane a les épaules
Surrogacy: The French Cultural Context
Maternity in France: A Conservative Revolution
Representing Surrogacy in France
Diane as Surrogate “Mother”
Diane as a “Pregnant Partner”
Diane and “her” Child
Conclusion
Works Cited
Filmography
Part II: Trauma and Disrupted Mother-Child Bonds
Trauma Behind Bars: Maternal Dilemma in Rossella Schillaci’s Ninna nanna prigioniera
Works Cited
Filmography
“Pour dire la souffrance des innocents?” Problematics of the Madonna-Son Trope in Representing Trauma in Philippe Aractingi’s Under the Bombs and Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum
The Mother and Son Trope and the Discourse of “Women and Children”
Under the Bombs
Capernaum
Works Cited
Filmography
Traumatic Memory and Narrative Healing in Contemporary Diasporic Chinese British Women’s Writing
Introduction
The Agony of Motherhood: Traumatic Memories and Haunting Grief
The Growing Pains of a Daughter
To Understand Motherhood: From a Daughter to a Mother
To Resume the Lost Memories: The Pain in History
Deprived of Motherhood: Trauma of Patriarchy and Policy
Rural Patriarchy, Son Preference, and Female Infanticide
The One-Child Policy
The Chinese Orphanages and Adoption System
Conclusion
Works Cited
Part III: New Challenges with ART
Tragedy, In Vitro: The Function of Reproductive Science in Simon Stone’s Adaptation of Yerma
Works Cited
“I have an enterprise:” Transnational Surrogacy, Neoliberal Repropreneurship, and the Potential Trauma of Clinical Labor in Zippi Brand Frank’s Google Baby
Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical Framework
Reproductive Entrepreneurship
A Close Viewing of Reproductive Entrepreneurship in Google Baby
Conclusion
Works Cited
Filmography
No Trauma for Artificial Women: Monstrous, Cybernetics, and Anomalous Mothers in Current Latin American Science Fiction
Origins
The Influence of Feminist Discourse
Monstrous Women
Anomalous Mothers
Conclusion: Eva Reconfigured
Works Cited
Index
