Maternal body and voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith

By Paula Gallant Eckard

Subjects: Histoire, Human body in literature, Menselijk lichaam, History, Amerikaans, Voix dans la littérature, Corps humain dans la littérature, Characters, Fictie, Moeder-kind-relaties, Mothers, Femmes et littérature, Voice in literature, Women authors, Mother and child in literature, Women and literature, Motherhood in literature, Mutter, Body, Human, in literature, Mothers in literature, Écrits de femmes américains, History and criticism, Histoire et critique, Maternité dans la littérature, Mères, Mère et enfant dans la littérature, Roman américain, American fiction, Moederschap, Mères dans la littérature, Personnages

Description: "Throughout human history, motherhood and maternal experience have been largely defined and written by patriarchal culture. Religion, art, medicine, psychoanalysis, and other bastions of male power have objectified the maternal and have disregarded female subjectivity. As a result, maternal perspectives have been ignored and the mother's voice silenced. In recent literary texts, however, more substantial attention has been given to motherhood and to the physical, psychological, social, and cultural dynamics affecting maternal experience. In Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith, Paula Gallant Eckard examines how maternal experience is depicted in selected novels by three American writers, emphasizing how they focus on the body and the voice of the mother."--BOOK JACKET.