Books by Berit Åström
Anthem Press, 2023
Although single fathers as primary carers are on the rise, most single-parent households in the U... more Although single fathers as primary carers are on the rise, most single-parent households in the United States are headed by women. These women are a lucrative market for parenting books and most of such books are aimed at single mothers raising sons. This intersectional study analyses a broad range of material: books written by female and male authors, African-American and white, health professionals as well as lay people, outspokenly feminist or traditionally conservative, addressing a middle-class or a working-class readership. This allows for a comprehensive analysis of normative attitudes towards parenting, showing how class and ethnicity interact with traditional assumptions of gender and biology to produce a genre of literature that is quite restrictive, perpetuating ideas of ‘intensive mothering’.
Situating these advice books within the context of parenting experts, the US fatherhood movement, the so-called ‘boy crisis’, cultural prejudice towards single mothers and what has been termed ‘neurosexism’ and ‘neuroparenting’, this study analyses the way in which the books draw on mother-blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. Using prescriptive and often alarmist language, the authors privilege traditional assumptions of gender, hegemonic masculinity and heteronormative family structures over single parent families, same-sex parenting and single mothers by choice (via adoption or ART). In doing so, the books afford very narrow parenting roles, for fathers as well as mothers, as well as a very limited range of masculine identities for young boys. Presented as common sense advice, these books are widely read by women seeking support and it is thus vital that they be interrogated for the way they continue to construct, shape and influence expectations on parenting, as well as the identities of young boys.
Lexington Books, 2023
Kinship in the Fiction of N.K. Jemisin: Relations of Power and Resistance examines the work of N... more Kinship in the Fiction of N.K. Jemisin: Relations of Power and Resistance examines the work of N.K. Jemisin through the lens of critical kinship studies. In a world increasingly suffering the effects of climate change, currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction, and where anti-democratic, racist, and misogynist movements are gaining ground in many societies, there is an urgent need to re-imagine our most intimate relations and the webs of kinship that form our societies, but also connect us to the more-than-human world. The essays in this collection shed new light on the ways in which Jemisin's fiction does such re-imaginative work and explores both the contemporary moment and the potential for a future that is other than our present.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
This edited volume addresses how single mothers and fathers are represented in novels, self-help ... more This edited volume addresses how single mothers and fathers are represented in novels, self-help literature, daily newspapers, film and television, as well as within their own narratives in interviews on social media. With proportions varying between countries, the number of single parents has been increasing steadily since the 1970s in the Western world. Contributions to this volume analyse how various societies respond to these parents and family forms. Through a range of materials, methodologies and national perspectives, chapters make up three sections to cover single mothers, single fathers and solo mothers (single women who became parents through assisted reproductive technologies). The authors reveal that single parenthood is divided along the lines of gender and socioeconomic status, with age, sexuality and the reason for being a single parent coming into play.
Chapter 11 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Palgrave Macmillan, Aug 2017
“Where are the mothers in Shakespeare?” “Where are the mothers in Disney?” Variations of these qu... more “Where are the mothers in Shakespeare?” “Where are the mothers in Disney?” Variations of these questions are voiced again and again, both in popular media and in scholarly research. The dead or absent mother is a recurring trope in Western cultural productions, from antiquity through medieval folktales, Shakespeare and Dickens to contemporary literature television, and film. Across historical periods and genres, the dead or absent mother is employed to articulate and debate, for example, questions of politics and religion, social and cultural change, as well as issues of power and authority within the family.
This anthology aims to explore the many functions and meanings of the trope of the absent mother, both as products of the time and culture that produced the various narratives, and as part of an ongoing cultural conversation that spans the centuries. The essays span material from the 1200s to 2014, investigating hagiography, romances, folk tales, plays, novels, graphic novels, and autobiography as well as film and television. This diversity allows for a more comprehensive analysis of the dead mother-trope than has previously been achieved. Through this broad approach to time, genre and medium the volume will contribute to a deepened understanding of societal attitudes towards mothers in present-day society as well as the dynamic relationship between society and fiction.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
"With its powerful images of rape and revenge, Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy has... more "With its powerful images of rape and revenge, Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy has made a major impact on the contemporary crime novel. This collection explores the role that rape plays in contemporary crime fiction, examining the sexually violent images at the heart of the Millennium trilogy in its many guises - from novels, to Swedish film adaptations, to Hollywood blockbuster [...] Putting Larsson's work into dialogue with a range of contemporary Scandinavian and Anglophone crime novelists, including Jo Nesbo, Mo Hayder and Val McDermid, these essays offer cross-cultural insights into how notions of sexual violence, victims and vengeance are constructed. Opening up a range of vital new quesitons, the book interrogates the very terms by which we understand and encounter violent images in popular fiction and film."
In recent years, Anglo-Saxonists have widened the scope of their studies to include not only vari... more In recent years, Anglo-Saxonists have widened the scope of their studies to include not only various aspects of Anglo-Saxon society and literature, but also their own discipline. Studying the scholarship on The Wife's Lament and Wuld and Eadwacer, Berit Åström examines the roles of these scholars in the critial history of the two poems. The poems are two of the most haunting, and at the same time cryptic, texts of the entire Old English corpus. Because of these characteristics, the reserach they inspires is wide-ranging, imaginative and provocative. The study focuses mainly on two aspects of scholarly reserach: the emergence of a professional identity among Anglo-Saxonist scholars and their choice of either a metaphoric or metonymic approach to the material. A final chapter charts the concomitant changes within Old English feminist studies. The study summarises the approaches to points of ambiguity in the poems and provides a comprehensive bibliography of twentieth century scholarship to the field of Old English studies, which should make it not only a concise introduction to the field of Old English studies, but also a useful work of reference for anyone wishing to pursue further research on the poems.
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by Berit Åström
Kinship in the Fiction of N.K. Jemisin: Relations of Power and Resistance, 2023
Kinship in the Fiction of N.K. Jemisin: Relations of Power and Resistance, 2023
Single Parents: Representation and Resistance in an International Context, 2021
The introductory chapter introduces the reader to the characteristics of the single parent group ... more The introductory chapter introduces the reader to the characteristics of the single parent group in the Western world and discusses the applied terms single mother, solo mother and single father in relation to previous research. It outlines the book and summarises each chapter with a brief discussion of the main results. The concluding discussion illuminates central themes throughout the book, mainly by juxtaposing how the genders are represented, and by stating that single parenthood is far from unambiguous, neither in practice nor in how it is represented. It is divided along the lines of gender and socioeconomic status where age, sexuality, and the reason for the singleness come into play.
Single Parents: Representations and Resistance in an International Context, 2021
The number of single mother-households has risen steadily in the US in recent decades. This has l... more The number of single mother-households has risen steadily in the US in recent decades. This has led to an increase in advice books aimed at single mothers, particularly single mothers raising boys. These books promise to teach them how to raise ‘successful’ or ‘strong’ sons. Presenting themselves as sympathetic and supportive helpers, many of these books instead invoke guilt and fear, suggesting that single mothers are likely to damage their young sons not only emotionally but also physically. Placing the books in a context of changing societal notions of family and parenthood, as well as a supposed ‘boy crisis’, this chapter analyses the strategies employed to perpetuate the traditional notion that a woman, particularly on her own, is incapable of raising a boy to become a man.
Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century, 2021
Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy’s works as misguided, labelli... more Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy’s works as misguided, labelling investigations of potential narrative misogyny in his novels as irrelevant. In this article I argue that such investigations are, on the contrary, highly relevant in the current climate of mother-blaming. I specifically explain how McCarthy’s 2006 dystopian novel The Road uses postfeminist fatherhood to valorize the father and vilify the mother, thus participating in a continuing cultural trend of privileging fathers over mothers. The Road invokes traditional cultural expectations of motherhood and fatherhood, presenting the mother as unable and unwilling to care for the boy, in stark contrast to the very competent and able father.
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
In Media Res, 2019
In 2017, Disney released a new, feature-length version of Munro Leaf’s 1936 anti-war tale The Sto... more In 2017, Disney released a new, feature-length version of Munro Leaf’s 1936 anti-war tale The Story of Ferdinand. Disney’s 1938 version follows Leaf’s story quite closely, about the calf who prefers smelling flowers to fighting. As an adult, Ferdinand is accidentally picked to fight in the ring, but refuses to do so, depriving the matador of the opportunity to show off his bravery.
The new film is by necessity quite different. But format and animation style are not the only differences between the two re-tellings of the story. Ferdinand’s mother is no longer a part of the narrative. Instead, all the calves now have fathers, who show off their strength and teach their offspring that a bull’s goal in life is to fight in the ring.
In the earlier version, the mother is concerned that Ferdinand might be lonely, and encourages him to play with the other calves. But realising that he is happy, she leaves him alone, since she is an “understanding mother, even though she was a cow.” In the new version, Ferdinand is proud of his big and strong father, Raf, who “is going to fight for glory in the ring,” but wants a different, peaceful, life for himself. Raf acknowledges Ferdinand’s concerns, but is confident that as a grown-up, Ferdinand will not only want to fight, but that he will be “bigger and tougher than your old man.”
Disney has a long history of getting rid of mothers, seemingly privileging fathers over mothers, as has frequently been pointed out both by scholars and viewers. Here though, removing the mother allows for a narrative that questions a lifestyle where there are only two options: “you’re either a fighter or you’re meat,” as one bull says. Ferdinand suggests a third option, a life where a bull is not sent to “the chophouse just for being yourself,” offering friendship instead of competition. Disney turns Leaf’s anti-war story into an indictment of restrictive, aggressive masculinity, promoting a kinder way of life, where alternative lifestyles are accepted. Ferdinand does not try to live up to his father’s expectations. Instead he saves his friends from their fathers’ fate, a violent death in the ring.
But, unlike 1938 Ferdinand, the new one does fight, and defeats the matador (but refrains from killing him). Just so we know that although peaceful, he is not a coward and a weakling. In fact, he is bigger and tougher than his father.
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 2019
In his 2012 book, Shakespeare and the Apocalypse, R. M. Christofides discusses the relationship b... more In his 2012 book, Shakespeare and the Apocalypse, R. M. Christofides discusses the relationship between the playwright, popular culture and the end of the world. He notes an intriguing point of contact between Shakespeare's plays and popular culture today: 'the problem with the apocalypse is that it never actually arrives' (xvii). In this article I investigate a set of novels that not only take as their starting point an apocalypse that in the end turns out not to be one (in the sense that the world does not perish, nor does humanity), but which also draw on and evoke Shakespeare and his works. These novels are Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014) and Justin Cronin's Passage trilogy: The Passage (2010), The Twelve (2012), The City of Mirrors (2016). Both narratives (reading the Passage trilogy as one extended story) move back and forth between a deep engagement with individual texts, and an invocation of Shakespeare as a symbol of universalism, or exceptionalism. Doing so, I argue, allows the narratives to address and appeal to different audiences: those readers who are interested in Shakespeare and his works and those who are more interested in 'Shakespeare', the term Chris Thurman uses when referring to Shakespeare as a cultural idea rather than the playwright himself, or his specific works (2016a: 3). Running the gamut from literary analysis to almost approaching 'Shakespeare as the Coca Cola of canonical culture' (Lanier 2007: 93), Mandel's and Cronin's narratives thus accommodate more than one set of cultural attitudes towards Shakespeare.
Handmaids, Tributes, and Carers: Dystopian Females' Roles and Goals, 2018
This chapter investigates and problematises representations of motherhood in Suzanne Collins’ The... more This chapter investigates and problematises representations of motherhood in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games-trilogy. The novels depict a range of maternal models, some traditional and conservative, some transgressive. If, as has been argued, young adult literature affects how readers “on the cusp of adulthood” consider society and their place in it (Basu et al.), the way mothers and mothering are represented in the novels may have a substantial impact on the readers’ identity formation.
Characterised by scholars as weak, despondent and overly feminine, Katniss’ mother has been criticised as a failure, abdicating from her maternal role. Conversely, Katniss’ marriage and maternity have been read as a heteronormative cop-out, undoing the character’s gender-transcending work. Drawing on literary and sociological research, I suggest a different reading of both characters, in which the narrative allows Katniss’ mother to explore a way of mothering that allows for maternal subjectivity, complexity of character and reconciliation of personal growth with motherhood. I further interrogate the epilogue, but not, as other scholars have done, from the point of view of the supposed domestication of Katniss, but from the character’s lack of agency and choice. It is suggested throughout the novels that Katniss does not want to have children, and the final decision is framed in terms of (ultimately futile) resistance on her part and coercion on Peeta’s. Analysing the text within the framework of voluntary childlessness as female liberation as well as the difference between “will” and “consent” in relation to reproduction, I suggest that Katniss’ submission and subsequent emotional distress articulate an ambivalent attitude towards motherhood. Ultimately, it could be argued that Katniss’ mother achieves a maternal role that is more transgressive and liberating than that of her daughter. The novels thus offer up a variety of maternal models, which make it possible for readers to negotiate their own understanding of mothering.
Women: A Cultural Review, Feb 13, 2018
Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy’s works as misguided, labelli... more Critics have tended to dismiss feminist analyses of Cormac McCarthy’s works as misguided, labelling investigations of potential narrative misogyny in his novels as irrelevant. In this article I argue that such investigations are, on the contrary, highly relevant in the current climate of mother-blaming. I specifically explain how McCarthy’s 2006 dystopian novel The Road uses postfeminist fatherhood to valorize the father and vilify the mother, thus participating in a continuing cultural trend of privileging fathers over mothers. The Road invokes traditional cultural expectations of motherhood and fatherhood, presenting the mother as unable and unwilling to care for the boy, in stark contrast to the very competent and able father.
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination: Missing Presumed Dead, 2017
It is a commonplace that very few mothers survive to the end of animated feature films. The const... more It is a commonplace that very few mothers survive to the end of animated feature films. The construction of the families and fathers the mothers leave behind has changed over the last few decades, however, as well as the reasons the mothers disappear. In this chapter, the films The Little Mermaid (1995), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992) are contrasted to the more recent Finding Nemo (2003), Chicken Little (2005) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009). This chapter analyzes how the trope of the dead mother intersects with the trend towards representations of postfeminist fatherhood in popular culture, and discusses how a new type of parenting is created, which, although progressive in many ways, is still predicated on the absence of the mother.
The Absent Mother in the Cultural Imagination: Missing, Presumed Dead, 2017
This chapter addresses the question of why the dead/absent mother-trope is invoked in so many nar... more This chapter addresses the question of why the dead/absent mother-trope is invoked in so many narratives and the many answers given, in mainstream conversations in various online media as well as in scholarly analyses. The chapter includes an overview of previous scholarly research, which is grouped according to the explanatory model given, rather than chronologically. Such an organization generates useful insights, not only into how scholars have approached the dead/absent mother-trope, but also into the transhistorical character of the trope itself. The chapter is concluded with an overview of the other chapters in the anthology, showing how they demonstrate that the dead/absent mother-trope is a cultural conversation that transcends historical and generic divisions.
Absent Mothers, Jul 2017
According to Pliny the Elder, the greatest gift a mother can bestow on her child is to die in chi... more According to Pliny the Elder, the greatest gift a mother can bestow on her child is to die in childbirth, preferably painfully. In his first century AD book, History of Nature, he rates such a death as highly auspicious, promising a great future for the child, citing Julius Caesar and Scipio Africanus as examples of how the mother’s destruction ensures the son’s success. This idea of the hero who loses his mother at birth has been recirculated through centuries of Western literary history, including for example the Arthurian knight of sorrows, Tristram, and Macduff, the man who defeats Macbeth. In his latest incarnation on film (2011), Conan the Barbarian also loses his mother at the moment of his birth. In this paper I read Conan against earlier traditions of motherless heroes, and discuss the implications of the film makers’ choice to kill off a mother that his creator, Robert E. Howard, seems to have left alive and well. I also contrast the 2011 version of the dying mother to literary dead mothers of earlier centuries. The 2011 mother is a warrior, not a cipher or just a vessel for her husband’s seed to be discarded after delivering the son. Her death is framed as a sacrifice that confers increased hero status on her son. Yet, what appears to be a re-interpretation, a valorisation of the dying mother, does not alter the fact that like so many other heroes in recent years, Conan is left to be raised by a father, and it is thus their relationship that is in focus. Rather than an upgrading of the mother-status, Conan’s dead mother seems to be just another victim of what Hannah Hamad has termed postfeminist fatherhood, a valorisation of fathers that is predicated on the marginalisation of mothers.
Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter, 2016
Döda mammor och ensamstående pappor: föräldraskap i tecknad film Mammor i tecknad film lever farl... more Döda mammor och ensamstående pappor: föräldraskap i tecknad film Mammor i tecknad film lever farligt. De blir skjutna, (Bambi, Micke och Molle), dödade med spjut (Björnbröder), uppätna (Hitta Nemo); de drunknar (Ice Age), eller bara dör oförklarligt från en scen till nästa (Det regnar köttbullar). Om de inte dör under filmens gång så är de döda innan den börjar (Lilla Kycklingen, Draktränaren). Ibland har de varit borta så länge att ingen ens verkar komma ihåg att de någonsin existerat (Hajar som hajar, Ratatouille). Av de animerade filmer som Disney producerade under 1900-talet var det ett försvinnande fåtal som innehöll mammor som överlevde till slutet, i och andra produktionsbolag, som Twentieth Century Fox, Sony, DreamWorks and Pixar, har fortsatt trenden in på 2000-talet. Journalisten Sarah Boxer räknar i en artikel med titeln "Why Are all the Cartoon Mothers Dead?" upp nitton filmer i vilka mammorna dör, eller redan är döda när filmen börjar, från Snövit (1937) till Herr Peabody och Sherman (2014). I det här kapitlet kommer jag till viss del att beröra frågan om varför, men jag kommer också att nysta i hur. Hur framställs mammornas frånvaro? Vad får den för effekter för karaktärerna? Får den alltid samma resultat eller används klichén på olika sätt i olika filmer? Har den något budskap?
The Mother Blame Game, 2016
In crime fiction, murder is a threat to society that must be neutralized and disposed of. In the ... more In crime fiction, murder is a threat to society that must be neutralized and disposed of. In the case of serial killers, this is usually accomplished by depicting the killer as a unique aberration that can be neatly contained and removed. In The Snowman, however, Jo Nesbø draws on the cultural paranoia regarding paternity uncertainty to reverse the positions of murderer and victims. The result is that the victims, adulterous mothers, become the threat to society, not the killer.
The notion that large numbers of women lie about the paternity of their children resonates very strongly with present-day cultural attitudes towards mothers in the West. In this chapter I analyze how Nesbø uses this willingness to believe in the perfidy of mothers to normalize and recuperate the murderer. The novel presents the adulterous mothers as oversexed, untrustworthy and disloyal, whereas the murderer is shown to be a suffering victim of just such a woman. By lying about the paternity of their children, the mothers have invited their own destruction. Thus, as I demonstrate, in Nesbø’s novel adulterous mothers are a greater threat to society than a man who cuts women to pieces.
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Books by Berit Åström
Situating these advice books within the context of parenting experts, the US fatherhood movement, the so-called ‘boy crisis’, cultural prejudice towards single mothers and what has been termed ‘neurosexism’ and ‘neuroparenting’, this study analyses the way in which the books draw on mother-blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. Using prescriptive and often alarmist language, the authors privilege traditional assumptions of gender, hegemonic masculinity and heteronormative family structures over single parent families, same-sex parenting and single mothers by choice (via adoption or ART). In doing so, the books afford very narrow parenting roles, for fathers as well as mothers, as well as a very limited range of masculine identities for young boys. Presented as common sense advice, these books are widely read by women seeking support and it is thus vital that they be interrogated for the way they continue to construct, shape and influence expectations on parenting, as well as the identities of young boys.
Chapter 11 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This anthology aims to explore the many functions and meanings of the trope of the absent mother, both as products of the time and culture that produced the various narratives, and as part of an ongoing cultural conversation that spans the centuries. The essays span material from the 1200s to 2014, investigating hagiography, romances, folk tales, plays, novels, graphic novels, and autobiography as well as film and television. This diversity allows for a more comprehensive analysis of the dead mother-trope than has previously been achieved. Through this broad approach to time, genre and medium the volume will contribute to a deepened understanding of societal attitudes towards mothers in present-day society as well as the dynamic relationship between society and fiction.
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters by Berit Åström
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
The new film is by necessity quite different. But format and animation style are not the only differences between the two re-tellings of the story. Ferdinand’s mother is no longer a part of the narrative. Instead, all the calves now have fathers, who show off their strength and teach their offspring that a bull’s goal in life is to fight in the ring.
In the earlier version, the mother is concerned that Ferdinand might be lonely, and encourages him to play with the other calves. But realising that he is happy, she leaves him alone, since she is an “understanding mother, even though she was a cow.” In the new version, Ferdinand is proud of his big and strong father, Raf, who “is going to fight for glory in the ring,” but wants a different, peaceful, life for himself. Raf acknowledges Ferdinand’s concerns, but is confident that as a grown-up, Ferdinand will not only want to fight, but that he will be “bigger and tougher than your old man.”
Disney has a long history of getting rid of mothers, seemingly privileging fathers over mothers, as has frequently been pointed out both by scholars and viewers. Here though, removing the mother allows for a narrative that questions a lifestyle where there are only two options: “you’re either a fighter or you’re meat,” as one bull says. Ferdinand suggests a third option, a life where a bull is not sent to “the chophouse just for being yourself,” offering friendship instead of competition. Disney turns Leaf’s anti-war story into an indictment of restrictive, aggressive masculinity, promoting a kinder way of life, where alternative lifestyles are accepted. Ferdinand does not try to live up to his father’s expectations. Instead he saves his friends from their fathers’ fate, a violent death in the ring.
But, unlike 1938 Ferdinand, the new one does fight, and defeats the matador (but refrains from killing him). Just so we know that although peaceful, he is not a coward and a weakling. In fact, he is bigger and tougher than his father.
Characterised by scholars as weak, despondent and overly feminine, Katniss’ mother has been criticised as a failure, abdicating from her maternal role. Conversely, Katniss’ marriage and maternity have been read as a heteronormative cop-out, undoing the character’s gender-transcending work. Drawing on literary and sociological research, I suggest a different reading of both characters, in which the narrative allows Katniss’ mother to explore a way of mothering that allows for maternal subjectivity, complexity of character and reconciliation of personal growth with motherhood. I further interrogate the epilogue, but not, as other scholars have done, from the point of view of the supposed domestication of Katniss, but from the character’s lack of agency and choice. It is suggested throughout the novels that Katniss does not want to have children, and the final decision is framed in terms of (ultimately futile) resistance on her part and coercion on Peeta’s. Analysing the text within the framework of voluntary childlessness as female liberation as well as the difference between “will” and “consent” in relation to reproduction, I suggest that Katniss’ submission and subsequent emotional distress articulate an ambivalent attitude towards motherhood. Ultimately, it could be argued that Katniss’ mother achieves a maternal role that is more transgressive and liberating than that of her daughter. The novels thus offer up a variety of maternal models, which make it possible for readers to negotiate their own understanding of mothering.
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
The notion that large numbers of women lie about the paternity of their children resonates very strongly with present-day cultural attitudes towards mothers in the West. In this chapter I analyze how Nesbø uses this willingness to believe in the perfidy of mothers to normalize and recuperate the murderer. The novel presents the adulterous mothers as oversexed, untrustworthy and disloyal, whereas the murderer is shown to be a suffering victim of just such a woman. By lying about the paternity of their children, the mothers have invited their own destruction. Thus, as I demonstrate, in Nesbø’s novel adulterous mothers are a greater threat to society than a man who cuts women to pieces.
Situating these advice books within the context of parenting experts, the US fatherhood movement, the so-called ‘boy crisis’, cultural prejudice towards single mothers and what has been termed ‘neurosexism’ and ‘neuroparenting’, this study analyses the way in which the books draw on mother-blame language, misconceptions of neuropsychological research and traditional conceptualisations of masculinity and femininity to convince the mother readers that they are unable to raise a son to be a man. Using prescriptive and often alarmist language, the authors privilege traditional assumptions of gender, hegemonic masculinity and heteronormative family structures over single parent families, same-sex parenting and single mothers by choice (via adoption or ART). In doing so, the books afford very narrow parenting roles, for fathers as well as mothers, as well as a very limited range of masculine identities for young boys. Presented as common sense advice, these books are widely read by women seeking support and it is thus vital that they be interrogated for the way they continue to construct, shape and influence expectations on parenting, as well as the identities of young boys.
Chapter 11 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This anthology aims to explore the many functions and meanings of the trope of the absent mother, both as products of the time and culture that produced the various narratives, and as part of an ongoing cultural conversation that spans the centuries. The essays span material from the 1200s to 2014, investigating hagiography, romances, folk tales, plays, novels, graphic novels, and autobiography as well as film and television. This diversity allows for a more comprehensive analysis of the dead mother-trope than has previously been achieved. Through this broad approach to time, genre and medium the volume will contribute to a deepened understanding of societal attitudes towards mothers in present-day society as well as the dynamic relationship between society and fiction.
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
The new film is by necessity quite different. But format and animation style are not the only differences between the two re-tellings of the story. Ferdinand’s mother is no longer a part of the narrative. Instead, all the calves now have fathers, who show off their strength and teach their offspring that a bull’s goal in life is to fight in the ring.
In the earlier version, the mother is concerned that Ferdinand might be lonely, and encourages him to play with the other calves. But realising that he is happy, she leaves him alone, since she is an “understanding mother, even though she was a cow.” In the new version, Ferdinand is proud of his big and strong father, Raf, who “is going to fight for glory in the ring,” but wants a different, peaceful, life for himself. Raf acknowledges Ferdinand’s concerns, but is confident that as a grown-up, Ferdinand will not only want to fight, but that he will be “bigger and tougher than your old man.”
Disney has a long history of getting rid of mothers, seemingly privileging fathers over mothers, as has frequently been pointed out both by scholars and viewers. Here though, removing the mother allows for a narrative that questions a lifestyle where there are only two options: “you’re either a fighter or you’re meat,” as one bull says. Ferdinand suggests a third option, a life where a bull is not sent to “the chophouse just for being yourself,” offering friendship instead of competition. Disney turns Leaf’s anti-war story into an indictment of restrictive, aggressive masculinity, promoting a kinder way of life, where alternative lifestyles are accepted. Ferdinand does not try to live up to his father’s expectations. Instead he saves his friends from their fathers’ fate, a violent death in the ring.
But, unlike 1938 Ferdinand, the new one does fight, and defeats the matador (but refrains from killing him). Just so we know that although peaceful, he is not a coward and a weakling. In fact, he is bigger and tougher than his father.
Characterised by scholars as weak, despondent and overly feminine, Katniss’ mother has been criticised as a failure, abdicating from her maternal role. Conversely, Katniss’ marriage and maternity have been read as a heteronormative cop-out, undoing the character’s gender-transcending work. Drawing on literary and sociological research, I suggest a different reading of both characters, in which the narrative allows Katniss’ mother to explore a way of mothering that allows for maternal subjectivity, complexity of character and reconciliation of personal growth with motherhood. I further interrogate the epilogue, but not, as other scholars have done, from the point of view of the supposed domestication of Katniss, but from the character’s lack of agency and choice. It is suggested throughout the novels that Katniss does not want to have children, and the final decision is framed in terms of (ultimately futile) resistance on her part and coercion on Peeta’s. Analysing the text within the framework of voluntary childlessness as female liberation as well as the difference between “will” and “consent” in relation to reproduction, I suggest that Katniss’ submission and subsequent emotional distress articulate an ambivalent attitude towards motherhood. Ultimately, it could be argued that Katniss’ mother achieves a maternal role that is more transgressive and liberating than that of her daughter. The novels thus offer up a variety of maternal models, which make it possible for readers to negotiate their own understanding of mothering.
Many literary analyses of this highly acclaimed novel have unquestioningly accepted the postfeminist marginalization of the mother and critics have elaborated on and developed the mother-blaming in the novel in a move I term critical co-writing. Co-writing occurs when critics ally themselves with an author, rather than retaining a critical distance, and re-present the author’s ideas without problematizing them. In the case of The Road, many critics build on postfeminist cues in the novel, adding their own, unreflected, understandings of motherhood and fatherhood. In so doing, they reinterpret and rewrite the novel into an even more forceful presentation of flawed mothering. In a critical discussion of these readings, I demonstrate how these critics transform the novel’s implicit criticism of the mother character into explicit condemnation.
The notion that large numbers of women lie about the paternity of their children resonates very strongly with present-day cultural attitudes towards mothers in the West. In this chapter I analyze how Nesbø uses this willingness to believe in the perfidy of mothers to normalize and recuperate the murderer. The novel presents the adulterous mothers as oversexed, untrustworthy and disloyal, whereas the murderer is shown to be a suffering victim of just such a woman. By lying about the paternity of their children, the mothers have invited their own destruction. Thus, as I demonstrate, in Nesbø’s novel adulterous mothers are a greater threat to society than a man who cuts women to pieces.
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Fungi are entangled in our lives, as food, as medicine or drugs, but also as parasites and agents of destruction, such as black mould, dry rot and cordyceps, the zombie fungus. This entanglement carries over into popular culture, where fungi are used to carry out different kinds of work, articulating deep seated fears and desires, functioning as a threat to, but perhaps also a saviour of, an embattled humanity at the brink of possible extinction.
This edited volume will be the first full-length scholarly study of fungal horror in popular culture such as literature, film, television, and computer games. We invite contributors to approach the topic broadly, both in terms of material analysed and in the themes explored.
N.K. Jemisin’s unprecedented win of three consecutive Hugo awards, one for each part of her Broken Earth trilogy, has brought her to the center of the field of the fantastic and earned her the attention of readers, fans and critics. Critical attention, however, is still just beginning to do justice to the richness of Jemisin’s textual universes. It has mainly focused on her work in the context of Afrofuturism, the Anthropocene, and as concerning issues of race, disability, and gender, recognizing Jemisin’s important contribution to re-imagining the future as a place characterized by diversity. While acknowledging the importance of these concerns to Jemisin’s fiction, this anthology takes as its starting point the conviction that not only are there other central concerns that merit exploration, but that our understanding of the role of Jemisin’s fiction in Afrofuturism and its struggle with the hope of a future (and a hopeful one at that) is made richer, more complex and more rewarding if we recognize and pay critical attention to the role of kinship relations in her work. Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, grandparents – the relationships these terms evoke form complex nurturing as well as destructive webs of meaning in Jemisin’s textual worlds. Webs of kinship, families, sometimes function as centers of resistance and sometimes as means of oppression. At times, they are both simultaneously.
Palgrave Macmillan have expressed a provisional interest in publishing the volume in the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life series.
Juxtaposing four texts from different periods: Thomas Mallory’s Morte d’Arthur, William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Charles Dickens’ Dombey and Son and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, this presentation analyses the way they articulate, and attempt to dispel, the threat of the mother’s genetic influence. Despite the differences in time and genre, all four narratives suggest that having too much of the mother’s blood can be fatal, and only by rejecting the mother in favour of the father may a son survive to adulthood. Through this interrogation of older texts, the presentation will query contemporary cultural discourse on maternal influence.
In recent years, the ethnographic studies of fans have been complemented by studies of fan fiction as a literature in its own right (Isaksson, Lindgren Leavenworth, McHarry, Åström), but the focus is still very much on fan fiction’s interaction with contemporary texts and literary fashions. This paper, on the other hand, aims to situate fan fiction in a historical conversation, investigating how a longstanding literary tradition is reflected and recirculated in fanfic writing.
As a number of scholars have noted (Adelman, Dunworth, Dever, Holland, Haas, Rogers, Wilson), the dead mother has long been a recurring feature in Anglophone literature as well as a staple in contemporary film and television, including Supernatural. The trope performs a number of varying functions in the texts, from kick-starting a narrative, to enabling the bonding between father and child, to ensuring the successful maturation and individuation of the child. Often the trope expresses a deep-seated societal anxiety concerning the potential power that lies in the position of the mother. In the case of Supernatural, the death of the mother not only ensures that Sam and Dean Winchester grow up to become hunters of the supernatural, but also that their only parental influence is their father’s.
The material analysed in this paper resides in the crossroads between incestfic (stories of incestuous relationship), mpreg (stories where male characters become pregnant) and domesticfic (stories in which the characters pursue everyday, domestic tasks). Incestfic and mpreg are sometimes dismissed as expressions of deviance and perversion, but as has been demonstrated (Tosenberg, Åström), in the case of Supernatural fanfic, these stories originate from cues given in the canon, and allow for the development of a number of different themes, such as love and parenthood.
In this paper, I ask the question whether mpreg is also a literary working through of, and response to, the societal distrust of mothers – a way of removing them once and for all. I chart how two fanfic authors drawing on the trope of the dead mother end up with very differing narratives: in one case a reaffirmation of the societal notion that mothers are dangerous and that fathers are more suitable as parents, in the other a discussion of how, in a patriarchal society, the ability to give birth removes agency, regardless of gender.