the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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Kate perceives that she was continually dragged into ,'patterns of behaviour by people who still expected them of her (SBD : 92). These patterns of feminine motherhood are what Kate tries to break away from 3.4.5.2. Lessing attempts to debunk the motherhood myth by delineating the evolution of her protagonist from the femlnine to the feminist, from being the heart of the family to assessing her positlon while standing outside it. Kate rejects the lmage of herself as the warm centre of the famlly, the queen termite, the source of invlslble emanations. She comprehends that the pain of inlustice had been waltlng for her all these years, but she had not allowed herself to feel lr: Earller, she had carefully tended the lmage of marrlage but now, through retrospect, ~t dawns on her that " marriage had a load heaped on it whlch it could not sustaln" (SBD 62) The only thing which sustained thelr relaelonship was the marltal bed. She beglns to see herself and her famlly as "a web of nasty deceptions" (SBD 218) Kate's total dlsllluslonment with lnstltutlonalised marrlage and motherhood and her veerlng towards the femlnlst pole is most succintly stated In her own words There are tlmes, you know, when there's a sort of switch rn the way I look at things -- everything, my whole lrfe since I was a glrl, and I seem to myself as a ravlng lunatic. Love, and duty, and belng In love and not belng in love, and lovlng,
and behavlng well and you should and you shouldn't and you ought and you oughtn't Its a disease Well, sometlmes I think that's all it is (SBD : 2161. 3.4.5.3. LeSSlng pro~ects Mary Finchley, who "wasn't like other Women" (SBD ,2151 as a foll to Kate. Unllke Lesslng's conventional, self-sacrlficzng women, Mary refuses the romanticisation of marrlage and motherhood To her, romance figures less promlnently In her decisions than reason she trades her freedom from economlc responslblllty for Bill's freedom from chlld - care res~onsibilitv Kate Brown finds the antlromantic-~ary ~lnchley a flghtening conundrum, one whlch she fears to solve [Andrews 1986 146) Mary is "what men descrlbe as a savage woman" (SBD 2121 -- they are scared of her but admlre her for it Never in love wlth anyone, Mary nevertheless carries on various affalrs Simultaneously Unllke Kate who thlnks, speaks, behaves and dresses as the society, her husband and chlldren would deem lt proper, Mary does what pleases her, unmindful of what the family or soclety thlnk Children, Mary considers a hindrance "Klds are all verf well, but they cramp your style" (583 214) Ber incorrlglble, stubborn and adamant nature 1s compared to a dog that a man has spent years training, and then he says" "He's useless, nothing takes" (SBD : 212). Cynical about the concepts of 'famlly', 'home', 'mother', 'father', Mary volces Lessing's disgust with these institutions Though Mary is first presen-ed as a contrast
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THE PROBLEMATICS OF MOTHERHOOD IN T
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POONAM MINOCHA Research Scholar Dep
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The hand that rocks the cradle does
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university. New Delhi; Pondicherry
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CEAPTER - 11 INTRODUCTIONS PROBLEMA
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manipulation of her self whereas Mr
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This chapter explores the major que
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and career, single parenting, ambiv
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INTRODUCTION : PROBLEllATICS OP XOT
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3 institution of motherhood In her
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5 aspect of the female body and 'ge
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1.2.1. The dissertation takes for ~
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9 goddess with the human mother, im
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11 example, portrays Sophie, the 'i
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harm children 13 It argues instead
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15 fourteenth-century mother and he
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17 Gold, The Ice Age and The Middle
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19 1.6.2 The two American novelists
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21 finds herself at crossroads - sh
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enmeshed in the femlnine motherhood
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25 unrecognizable as individuals" (
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from the blologlcal to the psycho-s
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narrative point of view, structure,
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3 1 By emphasizing the primacy of m
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TO bear a child, preferably a son,
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35 the moral, transf0m:ng the biolo
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37 2.2.1. Before the summer of her
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2.2.1.3. Kate trles to Inculcate in
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sexually knowledgeable woman of the
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other hand, completely convinced by
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2.2.2.4. Ira retalns some of her mo
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47 2.2.2.7. Apart from Rukmani and
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malevolence of the instltutlon itse
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for her it involves both a give and
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5 3 daughter Beloved the second tim
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'feminist' daughter. 5 5 What one s
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57 nurturing relationship Walker he
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59 far preferable to rejection or i
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lnwlcation of the ability to relate
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63 mother After a long bout of fami
Page 81 and 82: Her frail independence gave way to
Page 83 and 84: male. Rich interprets Yahweh's comm
Page 85 and 86: 2.5.3. Nectar in a Sieve reiterates
Page 87 and 88: . 71 internalization of a 'code of
Page 89 and 90: 73 Gilman's concept, therefore, is
Page 91 and 92: to the Church in the same way as he
Page 93 and 94: 77 2.7.1. Rukmani of Nectar in a Si
Page 95 and 96: 79 The mother therefore serves as b
Page 97 and 98: 81 comprehends that Michael's wife
Page 99 and 100: BEKINIST MOTBEICBOOD To be a good m
Page 101 and 102: 85 3.2.0. In the novels under study
Page 103 and 104: 3.3.1. In Alice Walker's Meridian,
Page 105 and 106: As will be seen subsequently, symbo
Page 107 and 108: 91 that the daughter often recelves
Page 109 and 110: dentity. What Elaine Showalter says
Page 111 and 112: (1987.110) Although no resolution i
Page 113 and 114: 97 :elect it. Her obsessive remembr
Page 115 and 116: core: "Daughter? I don't have any d
Page 117 and 118: OD she forms with her daughters. Be
Page 119 and 120: experience and motherhood as an ins
Page 121 and 122: 105 of the double message she recei
Page 123 and 124: 107 Jaya of That Long Silence and I
Page 125 and 126: 109 saru marries Manu mainly to bre
Page 127 and 128: him on this account. Not withstandi
Page 129 and 130: 113 chat that Went on in the queue,
Page 131: 115 adaptability, but realizes that
Page 135 and 136: 119 embodiment. Kate's dilemma is s
Page 137 and 138: 121 them to be childrearers once th
Page 139 and 140: Work means getting away from home,
Page 141 and 142: 125 would probably have become some
Page 143 and 144: 127 motherhood and career only when
Page 145 and 146: 129 she does not grant =he 'father'
Page 147 and 148: 131 social construct, Gilman was wl
Page 149 and 150: out a change ln attitude towards mo
Page 151 and 152: 135 the House' and loosening the te
Page 153 and 154: 13 7 of one's Own' is essentlal to
Page 155 and 156: 139 example that comes to mind imme
Page 157 and 158: 141 experlences a fragmentation of
Page 159 and 160: TECHNOLOGIC& MOTEERBOOD It was part
Page 161 and 162: 145 4.1.1. This brlngs us to the qu
Page 163 and 164: 147 womb, sometimes after it has be
Page 165 and 166: 149 bodies of brain-dead pregnant w
Page 167 and 168: 151 4.2.4.1. Surrogate motherhood h
Page 169 and 170: 153 vitro gestation (IVG) which inv
Page 171 and 172: 155 pregnancy necessary? Do foetuse
Page 173 and 174: 157 prosperity of then children dep
Page 175 and 176: 159 strengthen male control over fe
Page 177 and 178: 161 chlld, while advocates of techn
Page 179 and 180: clash with a woman's llved experlen
Page 181 and 182: 165 children and more a displacemen
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167 w~th Adrienne Rich's stance tha
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169 allowing women to place themsel
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171 4.5.2 Mothering, In Mattapoiset
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173 with a new consclousness" (Lane
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175 subverts the existing stereotyp
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177 when they learn from the men th
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179 4.9.0. As Piercy's Wcrman on th
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181 patrlarchal culture, we see her
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THE USTEETICS OF MOTHERHOOD . Women
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185 sees lt, the mother's voice is
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esurrected female slave narrator's
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189 daughter and her wrlting and wh
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191 through the flrst person narrat
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193 on Kate, uslng the omniscient n
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195 story, It is also the story of
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197 narrative of her visit to a uto
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dominated soclety. 199 In Atwood an
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201 buffalo" (NS 14) brlngs to ligh
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203 going to do, just lay there and
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205 Further, the chlldren brought u
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everyone she knew - but it had neve
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more my style" (SBD . 228) says Mau
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211 trees, fountains and flowers Th
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Quite ironically, the Commander's w
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215 5.5.3.8. The river 1s a dominan
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217 5.5.3.11. Morag of The Diviners
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separation is as easy as cutting of
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221 mixed feelings about her child.
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223 (WET:95) and "canned childLren1
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225 Piercy's Woman on the Edge of T
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227 5.5.9.6. "Maternity clothes", "
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229 warmth and shelter and at the s
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231 prompts Terry to remark that th
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deepest religious emotion, every fe
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235 In Search of Our Mothers' Garde
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237 Demeter, searching for her daug
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239 - the ways in which feminine mo
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241 6.2.0. A quick recapitulation o
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243 freedom: those with an aptitude
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considered natural, conversely ther
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247 not relieve the mother of her r
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249 androcentric society which repe
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251 The Summer Before the Dark and
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253 should orientate themselves to
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255 The Sunmar Before the Dark and
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257 semen, socially, ethically and
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259 feminine motherhood allow them
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261 for exploration, and Gloria Nay
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SELECT BIBLIOaRAPHY PRIMARY SOWRCES
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Budhos, Shirley 1987: The Theme of
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Gould, Joan 1988: Spirale : A Woman
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Mala, R. 1989: The Predicment of th
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Rumsey, Jean P. 1990: "Constructing
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Veevers, J.E. 1991: Continuity and
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