Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A daring and provocative book-length essay on the role of mothers in culture and history
The renowned literary and cultural critic Jacqueline Rose's Mothers is guided by a simple argument: that motherhood is rendered almost unthinkable by our overinvestment, at once psychic and social, in motherhood itself. Motherhood is the site in our culture where we lodge, or rather bury, the reality of our own conflicts, of psychic life, of what it means to be fully human. It is the ultimate scapegoat for our personal and political failings, for everything that is wrong with the world, which it becomes the task--unrealizable, of course--of mothers to repair.
To the familiar cliche that too much is asked of mothers--a long-standing feminist plaint--Rose adds a further dimension. She questions what on earth we are doing when we ask them to carry the burden of everything that it is hardest to contemplate about our society and ourselves. And she argues that by making mothers the objects of licensed sadism, we blind ourselves to the world's iniquities and shut down the portals of the heart.
To demonstrate this cruel paradox at work, Rose explores investigative writing and policies on motherhood, including newspaper reports, policy documents, and law; drama, novels, poetry, and life stories past and present; social history, psychoanalysis, and feminism. Mothers is an incisive, rousing call to recognize what we are asking mothers to perform in and for the world.
Synopsis
A daring and provocative book-length essay on the role of mothers in culture and history
A daring and provocative book-length essay on the role of mothers in culture, history and the human heart
The renowned feminist literary and cultural critic Jacqueline Rose's Mothers - An Essay on Love and Cruelty is guided by a simple argument: that motherhood is the place in our culture where we lodge, or rather bury, the reality of our own conflicts, of psychic life, of what it means to be fully human. It is the ultimate scapegoat for our personal and political failings, for everything that is wrong with the world, which it becomes the task--unrealizable, of course--of mothers to repair.
To the familiar claim that too much is asked of mothers--a long-standing feminist plaint--Rose adds a further dimension. She questions what on earth we are doing when we ask mothers to carry the burden of everything that it is hardest to contemplate about our society and ourselves. By calling on mothers to hold up the skies, she argues, we blind ourselves to the world's iniquities and shut down the portals of the heart.
To demonstrate this cruel paradox at work, Rose explores investigative writing and policies on motherhood, including newspaper reports, policy documents, and law; drama, novels, poetry, and life stories past and present; social history, psychoanalysis, and feminism. An incisive, rousing call, Mothers claims that unless we recognise what we are asking mothers to perform in the world, and for the world, we will continue to tear both the world and mothers to pieces.
Synopsis
A simple argument guides this book: motherhood is the place in our culture where we lodge, or rather bury, the reality of our own conflicts--and what it means to be fully human. By making mothers the objects of licensed cruelty, we blind ourselves to the world's iniquities and shut down the portals of the heart.
Mothers are the ultimate scapegoat for our personal and political failings, for everything that is wrong with the world, which becomes their task (unrealizable, of course) to repair. Unless we recognize the role that we are asking mothers to perform in the world, and for the world, we will continue to tear both the world and mothers to pieces.
Mothers is an incisive, rousing call to action from one of our most important contemporary thinkers.
"Jacqueline Rose has no peer among critics of her generation. The brilliance of her literary insight, the lucidity of her prose, and the subtlety of her analyses are simply breathtaking." --Edward Said