In search of the maternal body -- The tyrannical womb and the disappearing mother: the maternal body in medical literature -- Writing the body: the work of the body in women's childbearing narratives -- The highest pleasure of which woman's nature is capable: breastfeeding and the emergence of the sentimental mother -- Good mothers and wet nurses: breastfeeding and the fracturing of sentimental motherhood -- The fantasy of the transcendent mother: the disembodiment of the mother in popular feminine print culture -- Imagining the slave mother: sentimentalism and embodiment in antislavery print culture -- In search of the maternal body past and present
Summary
This new approach to the history of motherhood examines the role the female body played in defining motherhood from the mid-eighteenth century through the first half of the nineteenth century, demonstrating that physical representations or perceptions of the body were crucial to defining motherhood in different ways both for mothers themselves and for American culture at large
Analysis
History
Breastfeeding
Cess
Childbirth
Middle class
Nursing
Pregnancy
Print culture
Slavery
Uterus
Wet nurse
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
This work is licensed by Knowledge Unlatched under a Creative Commons license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode