| Description |
x, 167 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction : towards theorizing matrophobia -- Pt. 1. The matrophobic gothic -- 1. The life of Ann Radcliffe, mother of the matrophobic gothic -- 2. Radcliffe's matrophobic pattern : the critical response -- 3. The matrophobic metagothic : Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey -- Pt. 2. Gender dislocations : matrophobia in male-authored texts -- 4. Men who want to be women : matrophobia in Samuel Richardson's Pamela -- 5. Women who want to be men : matrophobia in Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy -- Pt. 3. Matrophobia in popular culture -- 6. Guiding blight : matrophobia in soap opera families -- 7. Daze of our lives : soap opera fragmentation, motherhood, and disease -- Afterword : maternity: a momentary glitch |
| Summary |
"Although in recent years maternity has become a contested site of political discourse, the matrophobia that characterizes many mother-daughter bonds has hardly been theorized. This book defines matrophobia as fear of mothers, as fear of becoming a mother, and as fear of identification with and separation from the maternal body. Deborah D. Rogers argues that matrophobia is the central metaphor for women's relationships with each other within a patriarchal culture." "Analyzing different contexts in which matrophobia problematizes feminism, this book begins with matrophobic discourse in eighteenth-century England. Significantly, the self-sacrificing construction of motherhood emerges at the same time as the novel, a genre that develops as a locus for the radical displacement of matrophobia."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [153]-163) and index |
| Subject |
Soap operas -- United States -- History and criticism
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Television soap operas -- United States -- History and criticism
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Mothers in literature
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English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism
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English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
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Motherhood in literature
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Mothers and daughters in literature
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Femininity in literature
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Motherhood in popular culture
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Femininity in popular culture
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Women in popular culture
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| LC no. |
2007001961 |
| ISBN |
9781433100451 (alk. paper) : |
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