Reading/Speaking/Writing the Mother Text; Essays on Caribbean Women's Writing

Cristina Herrera, Paula Sanmartín

• Publisher: Demeter Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781772580273
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

A groundbreaking exploration of motherhood in Caribbean women's literature. This collection of essays fills a critical gap in literary scholarship by examining the multifaceted representations of mothers and mothering in Caribbean women's writing. It challenges traditional interpretations and offers fresh perspectives on the complexities of maternal experiences in the region.

Reading/Speaking/Writing the Mother Text delves into themes of identity, memory, history, and violence, showcasing the diverse voices of Caribbean women authors. From postcolonial analyses to gender studies, the essays explore the unique challenges and triumphs of motherhood in the Caribbean context. Discover how these writers construct their texts to theorize motherhood, maternity, and mother-daughter relationships.

• Gain insights into the understudied theme of motherhood in Caribbean literature.
• Explore the diverse perspectives of Caribbean women authors.
• Understand the complexities of mother-daughter relationships in the Caribbean context.

For academics, students, and anyone interested in Caribbean literature, women's studies, and postcolonial studies, this collection offers a rich and insightful exploration of a vital and often overlooked subject.

Table of contents

• READING/SPEAKING/WRITING THE MOTHER TEXT: Essays on Caribbean Women’s Writing
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The Poetics of Motherhood and Maternity in Caribbean Women’s Writing PAULA SANMARTÍN AND CRISTINA HERRERA
• I. ON BEING A MOTHER: CHALLENGING MOTHERHOOD AND THE MOTHER AS “OTHER”
• 1. Accepting a Daughter Gisèle Pineau’s L’espérance-macadam ABIGAIL L. PALKO
• 2. “Or Not to Mother?” Astrid Roemer’s Lijken op liefde (“Looks Like Love”) DORIS HAMBUCH
• 3. “My Destiny Was to Come to this Island” Maternal Rejection and Colonization in Esmeralda Santiago’s Conquistadora CRISTINA HERRERA
• II. MATRILINEALISM AND MATERNAL LEGACIES
• 4. Memory, Myth and History in Shara McCallum’s Mother/Daughter Poems ADRIENNE MCCORMICK
• 5. From “Australian Whiteness” to Caribbean Self Maryse Condé’s Matrilineal Family Narrative of Identity Detection AMY LEE
• III. MOTHERLY, DAUGHTERLY VOICES AND HERSTORIES
• 6. “My Mama Had a Story” Mothers and Intergenerational Relations in Andrea Levy’s Fiction CHARLOTTE BEYER
• 7. Palè Andaki Genre, History and Mother-Daughter Doublespeak in Edwidge Danticat’s Fiction ANGELETTA KM GOURDINE
• 8. Sharing the (M)Other’s Text Mother-Daughter Relationships in Black Cuban1 Women’s Talking Texts PAULA SANMARTÍN
• IV. TROUBLING MOTHERHOOD: MATERNAL ABSENCE, REJECTION, AND VIOLENCE
• 9. “She Had Put the Servant in Her Place” Sexual Violence and Generational Social Policing between Women in Marie-Elena John’s Unburnable AMY K. KING
• 10. Loss of Mother, Loss of Self Orphanhood in Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother DANIEL ARBINO
• 11. Motherhood by Default Rethinking the Patriarchal Family in Gisèle Pineau’s Novels1 FLORENCE RAMOND JURNEY
• About the Contributors