Motherhood and representation: the mother in popular culture and melodrama

Uittreksel

"What is the significance of the discourse of motherhood in the United States? How is this white, middle-class mythology constructed? Motherhood and Representation explores the portrayal and ideological coding of "motherhood" in U.S. culture from 1830 to the present, examining the mother within three distinct, but ultimately related spheres: the historical, which charts the changes in the role of the socially constructed, institutional mother from Rousseau, through high-modernism, to the post-modernist present; the psychoanalytic, which focuses on various theories of the mother in the unconscious, from Freud, to Lacan and the French feminists, to more recent theoretical revisions and challenges; and, finally, the mother as she is depicted in cultural representations, particularly literary and film. Kaplan focuses on the two dominant Western paradigms of mother as "Angel" and "Witch" in nineteenth century women's writing, and then uses these analyses as the context for an exploration of twentieth century Hollywood cinema, including the films Imitation of Life, Stella Dallas, Christopher Strong, Now Voyager, Marnie, Three Men and a Baby, The Good Mother, and The Handmaid's Tale. The final section interprets the contesting and often contradictory contemporary discourses of the mother, arguing that modern reproductive technologies have created dramatic changes in the representation of motherhood. Motherhood and Representation will be essential reading for all those involved in gender studies, cultural studies, film, and critical theory." -- Provided by publisher.

Inhoud

Part I. History and theory discourses -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The historical sphere : motherhood as institution and social discourse -- 3. The psychoanalytic sphere and motherhood discourse -- Part II. Motherhood and fictional representation -- 4. Women's writing, melodrama and film -- 5. The maternal melodrama : the sacrifice paradigm : Ellen Wood's East Lynne and its play and film versions -- 6. The maternal melodrama : the "phallic" mother paradigm : Now voyager (1942) and Marnie (1964) -- 7. The "resisting" text within the patriarchal "feminine" : nineteenth-century women's writing and the "maternal woman's film" in the silent era : Uncle Tom's cabin; Herland; The blot; The crowd; Applause -- 8. The "resisting" maternal woman's film 1930-1960 : Arzner's Christopher Strong and Craig's wife; Imitation of life (1934 and 1959); Stella Dallas (1937); select Sirk films -- 9. Sex, work and mother/fatherhood : consumerism, science and reproductive technologies in the postmodern era.