"Mama's Baby, Papa's Slavery? The Problem and Promise of Mothering in Octavia E. Butler's "Bloodchild

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11272216
AutoresKristen Lillvis (0000-0002-6836-3962, Marshall University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas7-22
Fecha de publicación2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMELUS Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0163-755X • E-ISSN: 1946-3170
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/melus/mlu037
OpenAlexW2171700965
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas7

This essay examines the mother as the primary agent of social change in Octavia E. Butler's short story, “Bloodchild” (1984). Drawing on the theory of maternal inheritance that Hortense J. Spillers introduces in her essay, “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book” (1987), I argue that Butler presents mothering as a progressive force, allowing her marginalized characters—regardless of their sex—to destroy familial and communal hierarchies. I contend that a history of reproductive oppression gives Butler's male protagonist access to the power of motherly love, what Spillers situates as a tradition of nonphallic maternal authority developed out of black women's experiences during slavery. Positioning Butler's male protagonist as an inheritor of this maternal authority gives prominence to Butler's philosophy of motherly love, which situates the father as an equal progenitor of maternal power and advances the larger scholarly project of putting psychoanalytic theories of psychosexual development in dialogue with critical race and postcolonial theories.

Art · Art history · Sociology · American and British Literature Analysis · American Literature and Culture · Themes in Literature Analysis